Muggle Wars
by ButterflyGirl89
Summary: Voldermort and Snape survived the battle of Hogwarts. Voldemort orders that muggles be taken as prisoners and used as entertainment in the Muggle Wars,where they have to fight for their lives. Hermione is one of these Muggles and is barely surviving. When she is given to Snape as a gift he vows to help free her if she helps him rid the world of the Dark Lord for good. Dark content.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi there, so this is my second attempt at a Harry Potter fic. I kinda dreamt this one up and decided to write it down and post it and hopefully hear what you readers think of it. Many thanks for taking a look at it. **

**Summary: **_**What if the war had ended differently? What if Voldemort had survived and so had Snape?**_

_**It did, and both men survived.**_** During the war Voldemort ordered all Mudbloods to be caught and taken back to Malfoy manor. Hundreds of them were caught. Muggle students were caught during the Hogwarts battle, and they too were taken to Malfoy manor. From there they soon found themselves taken to another facility. Here they are kept like prisoner's and are forced to battle one another or battle trolls, dragons or Death Eaters and all for Voldemort's pleasure. One of these Mudbloods is Hermione Granger and Snape is the one who is determined to set her free, if she can survive long enough.**

**Here the Mudbloods are also abused in other ways and Snape is given Hermione as a gift from Voldemort, as reward for being a faithful servant to him. Snape has no intentions of using the girl in such a way but as a relationship begins to from between them it could be something that happens anyway, only making him more determined to save her. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Chapter 1**

_She sat there, all alone on the cold stone floor of the holding cell._ She had her scrawny legs tucked up in front of her, her scrawny arms wrapped around them holding them in place, her chin resting on top of her knees. She was freezing and this was the only way she could try to keep warm in the tiny holding cell, not much bigger than your standard toilet cubicle.

There was one small window in the cell, but there was no glass in it, just bars. It was much too high up for her to be able to see out of, not that she wanted to. The bars across it offered no resistance against the heavy rain outside that was being blown in by the rough winds. She rested her whole face against her knees in an effort to shield it from the cold drops of rain the poured down onto her.

Her head quickly shot up at the sound of a loud and ferocious roar that came from outside. It was quickly followed by cheers and she knew this meant only one thing… _the dragon was winning._ It roared again and she ignored the cheers as she ran through her recently acquired knowledge of dragons. Another roar and she immediately knew what breed it was…_a Chinese Fireball,_ also known as a LionDragon.

It was a very vicious breed, not to mention clever and very fast. The smooth scarlet scaled creature had a gold spikes around its face and its short snout resembled a hooked beak of some kind, on the beasts top jaw at least…_all the better to crush you with…_

The dragon was best known for the mushroom shaped flame it produced from its nostrils and from its mouth. The average length of the beast was twenty five foot, and the females were always bigger, however she had yet to see a small Chinese Fireball. _They were as big as they were nasty._

She had only ever known two people who had defeated this particular Dragon. The first was Viktor Krum during the first Triwizard Tournament challenge, the other was herself. She had fought a small adolescent adult Fireball and had won by the skin on her teeth.

Another loud roar was followed by loud energetic cheers. She knew this meant only one thing. _The Dragon had now won_. _Another prisoner here had died, another innocent Muggle_.

As if suddenly remembering the room she was sat in she knew what was about to come.

"_Bring on the next mudblood!" _Cackled Bellatrix Lestrange's voice over a speak system, _"The Granger girl!" _

The crowd erupted into more cheers. The same way they always did when it was her turn. Hermione looked up as the wall in front of her began to rumble. She watched as the bricks folded in on themselves to create the door in which she had been pushed through what seemed like hours ago now.

"You're up!" a particularly hateful Death Eater said as he stormed in and grabbed a handful of her knotted hair and pulled her to her feet.

Somehow she was able to hold in her whimpers of pain as he pushed her forwards, never loosening his grip on her hair. She could only presume she was getting used to being manhandled in this way. It happened every time she was chosen, also when she wasn't. This was how everyone was treated here.

She saw the familiar tunnel door stood open just up ahead. Another Death Eater was standing by it, holding it open with an amused smirk on his face. The Death Eater who had a hold of her pushed her down onto her knees at the opening of the tunnel. He then stepped behind her and kicked her as hard as he could in the back. She fell forward, flat on her face in the muddy water that lined the bottom of the narrow tunnel.

"Break a leg!" The Death Eater holding the door open yelled right before he slammed the damn thing closed with a loud slam.

"You know he means it!" the other Death Eater shouted to her through the bars of the door.

Hermione took a deep breath before she pushed herself up onto her feet.

"Get a move on!" the Death Eater who was in charge of the tunnel yelled. He didn't give her a second to obey before he hit her in the back with a stinging jinx.

She yelped in pain as she fell back down onto her knees. The Death Eaters burst into laughter. Hermione could only listen to it as it echoed down the tunnel around her, taunting her. She pushed herself back up onto her feet, holding onto both sides of the tunnel in an attempt to keep herself upright.

"Get a move on, Mudblood!" the Death Eater in charge of the tunnel yelled at her.

She didn't give him the chance to hit her with another stinging jinx as she moved down the tunnel, her pumps becoming soaked by the water that splashed around her feet. She got towards the end of the dark tunnel and could see the daylight outside of it. It was a dull day, the sky was full of grey clouds and the rain continued to pound down, bouncing off the hard ground.

The moment the crowds saw her emerge from the tunnel they began to cheer. She looked up at the stands. Hundreds and hundreds of faces glared down at her. Not one person in the crowd liked her and the only reason they had come here was to see her killed in a battle. They were cheering to her death that they hoped they were about to see.

Ignoring the crowds she began to look around the battle arena. It changed every time, depending on what or who she had to fight. Today it would be the Chinese Fireball as her predecessor hadn't defeated it. This was how it worked here -whatever beast, wild animal, deranged Death Eater or other being that was chosen to fight was only changed once and _if_ it was killed.

The battle arena today resembled some sort of rocky mountain side. She couldn't help but think it actually looked a lot like the arena that the contestants of the Triwizard tournament had fought in at Hogwarts. _Merlin, she missed that place, _she thought sadly.

She took another step forward and began looking around for something, anything she could use as a weapon against the Dragon. Here, they were very rarely given a wand to actually use in a battle and when they were it was one that barely obeyed their orders.

Hermione couldn't help but begin to shiver, she was freezing and the heavy rain that lashed down upon her, soaking her through to the bone only made matters worse. She was only wearing a thin pair of three quarter maroon coloured leggings and a spaghetti strap maroon t-shirt. Her sodden pumps were the same colour, a colour she despised. It was what they were always forced to wear, a kind of prisoners uniform, during a battle…_all the better to see you…_

She heard the crowds begin to cheer and knew they had seen something she hadn't. She felt the ground begin to practically shake beneath her. She slowly turned to see the Chinese Fireball flying towards her. She gasped the second she laid eyes on it. The average Fireball was twenty five foot long but this one was at least thirty five feet long.

Her sharp shiny white teeth still held remnants of her last meal, the previous prisoner. Hermione couldn't help but think that the Dragon still seemed hungry. Without giving the Dragon another look she turned and ran a few steps and dove behind a large boulder just as a mushroom shaped flame blew past her.

_Damn-it she needed a weapon!_

Her heart was pounding against her chest as she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees and crawled along behind some more boulders. She tried to ignore the booing crowds. _They wanted to see her hurt or killed. _This was all for their entertainment after-all.

The majority of the crowd was made up of pure blood families. There was even allocated seating for the VIP purebloods. Hermione had often seen the Malfoy's sitting in that section as well as Voldemort himself. He had his own sodding throne and his snake had one beside him.

Hermione was beginning to lose hope of finding a weapon, and also boulders to hide behind. She checked over the top of the last one she had available to hide behind and had to quickly duck down as flames came soaring at her face. She could feel the heat radiating off them and with the beast distracted, thinking it had caught her, she got up and ran as fast as she could.

The crowd began to yell, giving her escape attempt away. The Dragon swung its tail at her and it slammed into her at full force, sending her flying through the air before she crashed down, hard, on her back against the floor.

She gasped for air as the wind that had been knocked out of her began to very slowly refill her lungs. She managed to push herself up, ignoring the pain she was in. She fell behind another boulder just as the Dragon whipped its tail at her again. It slammed into a rock, shattering it and sending rubble raining down upon and around her.

She took another deep breath and jumped to her feet and began to run across the rocky arena. She had to jump over small boulders as well as keep ducking under the Dragon's flames. Twice, she had to dive over the Dragon's tail as it whipped out at her again.

The second time she landed hard on the rocky ground and went tumbling down into a shallow ravine. She had only fallen a few feet but the icy cold water she had landed in offered her no soft landing. She tried to push herself up but pain shot through her arm. She slowly held it up in front of her to examine the damage and was sickened at the gash that ran from her shoulder right down her arm and onto her hand. The blood was spilling from the wound and she knew the metallic smell would only encourage the Dragon.

She began to climb out of the shallow ravine. _It was damn-near impossible with her arm in such a state but somehow she managed it. _The crown began to boo upon seeing her still standing. She could only limp and fall behind another boulder as she heard the Dragon running towards where she was.

She was beat and she wondered if this was it? She'd been here for months and had won every battle she had been put into, barely. She knew this fact pissed the crowds off as well as the Death Eaters who helped run this place and of course Voldemort himself. So, each new battle she found herself in was becoming more and more difficult to win. Something she knew was being done on purpose. _She wondered if finally the crowd and the others who wanted to see her dead would finally get what they wanted._

She was dizzy and she felt nausea creeping over her. She could only presume this was from the blood loss she was suffering. However, sheer determination to go out with a fight made her pull herself up to her feet, but the second she did the Dragon whipped its tail into her as if it had being lying in wait this opportunity.

She was sent soaring through the air again and landed with a much harder and more painful smack against the floor. Her head was spinning and she knew she was about to lose consciousness. Her arm fell out to the side of her, hitting something as it smacked down. She turned to see what it was and was shocked to see a long and sharp piece of wood beneath her pale hand.

_Adrenaline began to pump through her system._ She rolled over and grabbed the piece of wood in her hands. She rolled again, onto her back and held the wood upwards just as the Dragons huge jaws came crashing over her.

She was sure she was about to feel its jaws crush her but she was wrong. Instead she heard a sickening piercing sound. She felt like a bucket of warm water had been thrown down on her but as she opened her eyes she knew it wasn't water….

The piece of wood was sticking through the top of the Dragon's jaw which was opened up like an arch above her. She let go of the wood and crawled back, slipping and sliding in the blood of the dragon that had spilled onto her and onto the ground around her.

She tried to push herself up onto her feet but her body was completely drained. She fell back down, flat on her front, grazing her face against the rocky earth. The last thing she remembered was the crowds loud booing before everything went black.

_It appeared she would live to try and survive another day of the Muggle Wars._

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you like it and if you would like to see more.**

**Snape wasn't in this chapter but he will certainly be in the next.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks so much to everyone who has added alerts and things and to those who reviewed. **

**As this story isn't following along with how the series ended, characters like Bellatrix Lestrange and the Malfoy's are going to play a role in it. Also Snape is still Headmaster. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Chapter 2 **

Hermione opened her eyes slightly to find her vision seemed blurred by the pain she was in. She felt her eyelids begin to drift shut again, but when she felt someone touch her slashed and bleeding arm they shot open again. Her vision was still blurred, but she turned her head to the side to see who was touching her. _She knew in this place it was the last thing you wanted._

She knew she was in the _"Hospital Wing" - _if that's what it could be called. It was made up of two beds in another small stone cell that had only one window high up and again, and like all the other windows in the prison like building, it was covered in bars. There was usually a woman here that healed them, but even through her lack of vision she could see the person beside her was not a woman.

She could make out black, lots of black, black clothes, a black robe. She glanced up and saw recognisable long black hair. She saw the person bend down over her and she felt their hot breath brush against her face as they whispered into her ear. "Let's get you fixed up."

The voice seemed so familiar but she just couldn't think who it was, her mind was to overrun with pain. That was the last thing she remembered before she let the pain take over her and she slipped back into unconsciousness.

**~0~0~0~0~**

_Hermione was running down what had once been a rather proud looking corridor within Hogwarts. Now it was just a narrow pathway littered with rubble. She had to fight her way over the rubble as she wondered where Harry and Ron could be. Somehow they had become separated during the battle and she now found herself alone._

_She was hoping to find someone, anyone, she knew. She had just turned the corner when she ran into something or rather someone. She recognised the black robes and immediately reached for her wand but two strong hands caught hold of her wrists and pushed her backwards, pinning her against the wall._

"_Granger," Professor Snape growled at her. _

_She flung her body towards his, trying to push against the wall but he easily forced her back against it. He was so strong compared to her. _

"_If you're as smart as you always forced everyone to believe then you'll get out of here now!" he told her. _

"_Or what, you'll throw me off the astronomy tower like you did professor Dumbledore?"_

_Snape glared at her for a moment and then closed his eyes and sighed. He pulled her into him and twisted her around. He then scooped her up and carried her easily under one arm. She desperately tried to fight her way free from his grasp, wondering where the hell he was taking her to. _

"_Ah, Severus, you found another to add to the collection!" she heard the snake like voice of the Dark Lord hiss from up ahead._

_Snape seemed to let her go but she noticed how he kept his arm tightly wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her side, holding her body right against his. _

"_My Lord," Snape began. _

"_The girl is Potter's friend. She has caused us much unnecessary trouble over the past few years." Voldemort continued to say as he moved closer. "She will no doubt make a worthy addition to our group so far."_

_Hermione could only wonder what his words meant. She was suddenly pulled out of Snape's hold by a Snatcher. She never heard their spell but heavy chains suddenly wound around her body and she was sent crashing to the floor. _

_The Snatcher walked over to her and scooped her up. He flung her over his shoulder like she weighed nothing. As he carried her away down the corridor she heard Voldemort say, "Well done Severus. It pleases me to know should Harry Potter survive he will be left wondering what happened to his friend. I can only hope he will learn of the torture she is about to experience."_

Hermione pushed her memories aside and came back to reality. However, she continued to think about Voldemort's words. From them she had been expecting torture under the Cruciatus curse, stinging jinxes and things like that. She had never expected the hell she had actually been forced to live in these past few months. She hated Snape for being the reason she was here. He had caught her. _He'd carried her to the Dark Lord._

He was the reason she had to fight to stay alive most days. He was the reason she hadn't eaten a real meal in months. He was the reason she had been mauled and manhandled by most of the guards here. She would have loved nothing more than to hit him with as many stinging jinxes as she possibly could.

Forgetting about her hatred towards him and how bitter this place was making her, she pushed herself up from the cold floor that she was lying on. She was back in her cell. Her cell was pretty much exactly the same as the waiting cell she usually found herself in except it was just a little bit bigger and there was a pile of straw in it that was her bed. Of course whoever had brought her back here hadn't bothered to put her down on the straw and the little bit of warmth it provided.

She pushed herself right up onto her feet and tried not to shiver from the cold. She felt dizzy and sick from hunger. _What she would give for some hot food and not just some mouldy bread_. She looked up as the bricks on the wall opposite her began to rumble and fold back on themselves. She knew this meant a door was about to appear there, and she knew this meant she was either being let out for some _"recreation time"_ which really meant working around the castle or she was being taken to be used in another fight.

She put up no fight as a familiar looking guard reached in and grabbed her. He pulled her out of the cell and began dragging her down a dimly lit corridor.

"Is it _recreation time_?" she asked sarcastically.

"You wish, Mudblood!" he snapped.

"Where are we going then?" she asked as he turned down another dimly lit corridor that she had never been down before.

"You've got a meeting with the Dark Lord himself." he said to her.

They came to a door and he let go of her only to push her away from him. He pulled his wand out and before she knew what had happened she was lying on the floor with heavy chains wrapped around her body, _a familiar feeling. _Another jinx hit her and everything went black.

**~0~0~0~0~**

When Hermione woke up she was still bound by the chains. She was somewhere she recognised, somewhere she hadn't been for what seemed like years and years. She was in the forbidden forest, chained to a thick tree trunk. This made her actually laugh because she was surrounded by a dozen Death Eaters including Bellatrix Lestrange. She was no match for all of them so why she was chained up like some dangerous animal was beyond her.

Voldemort himself was also there. He was standing there proud and smug as usual. His snake was reaching up at his side so he could stroke her head. Hermione had always hated that damn thing.

"Ah, the mudbloods finally awake!" Bellatrix said as she walked over to Hermione.

She tenderly brushed a lock of Hermione's hair back out of her face. Hermione thought it an odd thing for the witch to do but then Bellatrix's cold black eyes met Hermione's. She suddenly began to cackle and then stopped abruptly and stepped up close and whispered into her ear, "Do you still have the gift I let you with?" she asked.

Hermione could only feel humiliated as Bellatrix grabbed her arm and painfully twisted it round to reveal the scar on her arm where the word mudblood had been carved into her flesh by Bellatrix at Malfoy manor. It was a horrible scribbling of the word and Hermione hated it but no matter what she had tried she couldn't get rid of it.

"Perhaps I should give you a matching one on your face!" Bellatrix cried out excitedly and pulled out her wand and brought it right up to Hermione's cheek.

Hermione dreaded the pain she knew it would cause but she refused to give Bellatrix the satisfaction of seeing her cry out in pain or attempt to beg her not to do it. She barely managed to hide the relief from her face when she heard Voldemort say, "Put your wand away, Bellatrix. I want the mudblood to look her best when I present her as his new gift."

"My Lord," Bellatrix said and ducked away knowing she had to obey his orders or suffer the consequences.

Hermione could only watch from where she was tied as, after a loud cracking sound, Snape appeared in the clearing where they were all gathered. She watched as he moved closer, his black robes billowing behind him. He didn't seem to walk, he seemed to glide. His movements were so graceful which was most ironic seeing as he was anything but a graceful man. He was evil, vile, a murderer, and she truly hated him.

"My Lord," Snape said to Voldemort.

"Severus, I began to fear you were not coming." Voldemort replied.

"One would think that being headmaster of a school would offer the freedom to be able to leave as and when he chooses, _apparently not_." Snape said making Voldemort smile. It was a sickening sort of smile.

Snape had noticed Hermione the second he had Apparated, however he was trying not to pay attention to her. However, as Voldemort stepped closer to her he was forced to turn and face her. Her eyes locked on his and Snape could see the hatred towards him in them.

"Tell me Severus, what are your feelings towards the mudblood?"

Severus felt a lump form in his throat. He knew he shouldn't have healed the girl after her battle, but she had been so close to death. He had thought he had taken all necessary precautions so that the Dark Lord would not find out, but he feared not. "My Lord?" he asked, sure he was in deep trouble, something that was never a good thing to be in with the Dark Lord, it usually ended only one way, _death._

"I wish to give the girl to you as a gift." Voldemort told him.

Snape looked at him, he was totally confused and had to force himself to smile as if happy by the Dark Lord's gift. Voldemort must have seen his hesitation because he asked, "Do you not like the girl, Severus?"

"She is an insufferable know-it-all who delights in being the centre of attention. She's a delinquent, who constantly broke school rules and a thief having stolen from my personal supply cupboard!" Snape replied.

"And you're just a murderer!" Hermione yelled angrily at Snape, "You're just as pathetic as he is!" she added, referring to Voldemort.

Bellatrix moved as quickly as lightening, her hand coming up to whip Hermione across the face, her long finger nails scraped across her cheek leaving behind four deep gashes. Hermione had become used to pain over the previous months so this was nothing but she was ready to boil over with anger.

"Why, this girl?" Snape asked.

"You always show up to watch her fight, ever since you captured her. The girl intrigues you, does she not?" Voldemort said quizzically.

Snape looked at Hermione, at the deep bleeding gashes on her face. He couldn't help but think she looked such a broken woman now, so unlike the vibrant girl she had once been. "She does." he replied.

"Then she is yours." Voldemort said as he walked right over to her. His red slit like eyes glared at her. "To use how you wish." he added.

Hermione knew perfectly well what he meant. He was likely the one who had told the guards to feel free to do whatever they liked with her and the other prisoners.

"Does this mean that I can take her back to Hogwarts with me?" Snape asked interrupting the way Voldemort was glaring at her.

"You can, but she is still to be used in the battles. She does, after all, offer the most entertaining fights."

Snape just nodded and then walked over to her. She watched him point his wand at her and felt the chains fall from around her. She fell away from the tree and landed on her hands and knees on the floor. She looked up just in time to see him point his wand at her again, and for the second time that evening everything around her went black.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. **

**Hope you liked, please review and let me know what you think of this story so far. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks to everyone reading and thanks for the reviews. I meant to have this up ages ago but just haven't had the time to write these last couple of days. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 3**

Snape was pacing around his office. He hated the room as it had once belonged to Dumbledore, a man he had killed. He still despised himself because of this fact, whether he had done it to save the elder wizard from an inevitable agonising death or not and despite the fact that the man had practically begged him to do it.

_Coward!_ Snape thought to himself.

The more time that passed by the more he knew he should really go back up to his personal quarters and check on Hermione, who lay asleep on the bed in the spare room that his more recent quarters possessed. Unlike his old quarters down in the bowels of the castle the headmaster's quarters were very spacious and offered too much light through the many windows for his liking. Not only was there an extra bedroom in these quarters but each bedroom had its own en-suite and along with the main living room there was a small library and a small study, a room Snape had transformed into a private potions lab.

Still, even with all the extra room he'd been reluctant to have to relocate himself into this part of the castle. He could hide away up here easily enough, but even though the quarters now clearly belonged to him, and held all his personal possessions, everything about the space reminded him of Dumbledore and the night on the Astronomy tower. The night he had ended the man's life; a man he still had a lot of respect for.

Needing a distraction from those thoughts he decided it was time to go check on Hermione. He figured she would be waking up from the spell he had cast on her soon and he needed to be there to explain a few things to her as soon as she was awake.

He walked across the now much less cluttered former office of Dumbledore and up a small set of stairs at the back of the room. At the top of the stairs was a door and through this was a narrow stone spiral staircase. As he travelled up these he was trying to decide what he would say to the ex-Gryffindor student if she were awake. At the top of the staircase was a portrait. He muttered his password to it and the portrait opened up like a door. He stepped through it and into what was the main sitting room of his quarters.

The room was huge with two majestic looking fireplaces at either side. Both were made from black marble. One was surrounded by his own black leather couch and matching leather armchairs, in-between them all, and in front of the hearth, was a tinted glass coffee table, with black iron legs that looked like the huge paws of a lion. In front of the other, slightly smaller, fireplace was a dark mahogany coloured arm chair with a high back. A small dark cherry-wood side table sat beside it with a lamp, the stand of which was a snake coiled around a tree stump.

He passed by all this and walked towards to the door in the corner of the room. The walls where no longer covered in portraits as they had been when the rooms belonged to Dumbledore. Snape had replaced them with floor to ceiling shelves filled to the brim with his books. This meant that there were no curious eyes following him from portraits as he came to a stop outside the door. He hesitated, wanting to knock on it but he still had no idea what he was going to say to her.

_For Merlin's sake grow a set!_ He silently scolded himself. He reached up and knocked on the door. He wasn't sure to be surprised or not when he got no reply. He took the charm he had cast upon the door down and slowly opened it. He peered into the room and saw the bed where he had lay Hermione down on was now empty.

Without really thinking he strode into the room. He had no sooner done so when he felt something hard smack him in the back. He stumbled forward and just a second later felt another hard, and rather painful, blow to his back. This one almost knocked him down onto his knees.

He heard his attacked swing back, ready to swing forward and deliver another blow, but before they had chance he spun round on his heels and grabbed the item they had used to hit him. It was a narrow piece of wood; he didn't have time to look around to see where it had come from as he snatched it out of Hermione's hands and tossed it to the side. He was surprised when she launched forward and tried to claw at his face like some sort of wild cat.

He easily managed to catch hold of her wrists mid-air and pulled her into him before pulling her round and pushing her backwards with his own body, still keeping tight hold of her wrists. He pushed her down on the bed and pinned her arms down above her head. She continued to struggle beneath him but it was no good, he was too strong.

He suddenly felt her shift her legs beneath him and knowing her intention he sprang up and his knees came down on the top of her legs pinning them down in what he knew would be a painful hold. He made a mental note to apologise for this later…_maybe…_

He did feel slightly guilty as she yelped in pain. This was quickly followed by an angry growl. "Get off of me you evil, vile excuse for a man!" she roared at him.

"Not until I can trust you not to attack me!" he growled at her.

"Attack you? I want to kill you, you prick!" she yelled angrily at him.

He was sure he heard her voice come close to cracking with emotion. He knew and understood that she hated him but he wasn't about to let her try to injure or kill him as it seemed she wanted to do. "Stop fighting me!" he told her.

"Get off me!" she cried, this time with a slight desperation in her voice.

Before Snape had chance to reason with her he felt her throw her body forward, he was amazed at how strong she was but he quickly realised all the battles she'd taken part of so recently had helped toughen her up, build muscle where there was once none. Reluctantly, he had to lay his body down on top of hers, pinning her further to the mattress beneath her.

He heard her whimper and he knew this wasn't from pain but more from fear. He knew that the death eaters who worked at the prison boasted about having taken female prisoners against their will and during these stories he'd heard Hermione's name mentioned more times than he wanted to remember; it had sickened him. He knew having his body pressed against hers like this was probably serving as a wicked reminder of things she had been through but he also knew if she continued the way she was she would not only hurt him but herself as well.

"Miss Granger, please!" he begged.

Hermione kept her eyes shut tight, her head turned to the side, as she continued to struggle against him. Keeping hold of her small wrist he moved his, and her, hand to her chin and turned head her to face him.

"Look at me," he told her, trying to sound gentle but failing miserably.

Hermione had come to learn that to ignore orders only got her a beating so she opened her eyes and glared up at him. She saw something flicker over his black eyes as he glared down at her but she had no idea what it was. She felt pathetic that he was able to restrain her so easily, she knew such a thing probably delighted him. Even knowing it was doing nothing but bruising her wrists she continued trying to pull her hands from his grasp.

Snape could see the fear etched on her face, not to mention the tears that had begun to form in her eyes. "Stop fighting me." he told her again.

"_Argh!"_ she growled in frustration, knowing she had no choice but to take whatever was to do, he was too strong for her. "Just get on with it." she spat at him through gritted teeth and shut her eyes, not wanting to see what she suspected he was about to do to her.

Snape knew what _"it"_ she was referring to. "Miss Granger, I have no intentions to…touch you in any such way." he told her.

She opened her eyes to look at him again, he saw understandable mistrust in them. As if to prove his point he loosened his grip around her wrists and said, "I'll let you up but if you try anything…." he warned.

Hermione just nodded at him, not quite ready to let herself believe what he was saying he would do. _She was sure it was some sort of trick._ Slowly he let go of her and pushed himself up. Hermione waited for him to pounce at again but as he took a step away from the bed she quickly pushed herself up off the bed and ran over to the wall as far from the bed as she could get.

Snape watched as she gripped the walls for dear life for a moment, taking in deep but shaky breaths. He was sure her whole body was shaking and he knew it wasn't because she was cold. She was frightened. He continued watching as she turned to face him, now seeming slightly more calm.

"Why did you bring me here if you have no intentions of touching me?" she asked.

"Would you rather be back at the prison?" he asked her.

She shook her head and looked at him with pleading eyes. "I never want to go back there again!"

"I'm afraid that is something beyond yours or my own choice. For now you will have to return when called forth to battle."

Hermione closed her eyes and sighed. She slammed her head back against the solid wall behind her, ignoring the slight pain it caused. Snape could only watch her as she slumped back against it.

"I'm exhausted with that place. I can't possibly survive one more battle. I'm not even sure if I want to." she confessed, refusing to look him in the eyes, embarrassed by her own weakness.

"I can help you." he told her after a long moment of silence.

"How?" Hermione asked, still refusing to look him in the eyes.

"Train you." he replied.

"And why should I trust you?" she scoffed as she moved her brown eyes to look directly at his dark orbs.

"Who else do you have?" he asked.

Hermione could only look at him blankly, she knew he was right. She had no one anymore, she didn't even know if Harry or Ron where still alive. She had no idea who had survived the battle of Hogwarts.

"And what do you want in return?" she asked, knowing he must want something.

"Nothing." he told her.

Hermione just scoffed she didn't believe him at all. She had no reason to trust this man and no intentions of ever letting herself trust him. "Yeah, right!" she snapped in disbelief.

"Fine then, I simply need you to help me keep up appearances with the Dark Lord."

Hermione just looked at him with raised eyebrows, she was confused.

"I need all the help I can get in bringing the Dark Lord down and I need you to be the one to help me with this." he informed her.

"Why me?" she asked as she remained slumped against the wall.

"Because you're the only one who I think capable of being able to help me, you are the only one I can trust."

Hermione glared at him. "I don't have the energy to fight another battle." she told him matter-of-factly.

"You will have. I will help you gain the strength you need. I can _try_ to put off any battle the Dark Lord wishes you to fight." he said.

"How?" she asked

"I can help you train. Show you how you can strengthen your body and your mind…"

"…I mean how will you prevent me from having to battle?"

Snape thought about this for a moment and came up with the only thing he could think of that would work. "I will tell the Dark Lord that I am finding too many _"uses" _for you to satisfy my own personal needs."

His words received a disgusted grunt from Hermione, he felt the same way but he knew it would work. "He knows it best to keep his most "loyal followers" sweet." he said.

Hermione just nodded and pushed herself away from the wall and walked over to the bed. Snape watched as she slumped down onto it. He could see she was struggling to keep her eyes open but he also couldn't help but notice how thin she was, every bone in her body seemed to stands out.

"I know you're tired, and you can sleep, but first you need to eat something." he said to her.

The thought of food was amazing to her, but still she couldn't bring herself to trust him despite what he had said to her. She didn't want to eat any food he gave to her, for all she knew he could have poisoned it. "I'm not hungry." she said and then as if on cue her stomach rumbled loudly.

Snape just looked at her, his eyebrow raised. "So it would appear."

Hermione just glared at him. "How do I know you're not going to poison it?" she had to ask, hoping to offend him some.

Snape smirked at her and then took a step closer to her. He fully expected her to shrink back from him so was both surprised and a little annoyed when she didn't and when she actually got back onto her feet ready to confront him. _Did he not intimidate her?_ He took another step closer to her so that he was towering over her. He saw how she glared up at him and still he saw the hatred in her eyes. _How dare the little chit look at him in such a way!_

"If I wanted you dead I could find much quicker ways of doing so than poisoning your food." he snarled.

"And if I had the strength I would have hit you harder when you walked in." she spat back at him.

Snape glared at her and then walked towards the door. "I will have some food brought into you." he said before he walked out, shutting the door and locking it with a charm behind him.

Hermione sighed and sat down on the bed. She really was tired, she felt like she could sleep for a week but she was starving. As her stomach rumbled hungrily again she realised she couldn't wait to eat something, anything, _whether it was poisoned or not._

It wasn't long before an elf Apparated into the room with a plate of small sandwiches and some salad. Hermione happily took it from the elf who offered her a quick and shy smile. She thanked the small female elf, who then Disapparated with a smile in her big blue eyes. She then tucked into the sandwiches like she had never eaten in her life.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Hermione woke up sometime later and saw that it was dark outside her bedroom window. The empty plate that she had placed on the bed beside her was now gone. She presumed the small elf must have returned and taken it while she was sleeping. She pushed herself up off the comfy bed and walked across the room towards the bathroom she had quickly looked in when she had first woken up to find herself in the room. She hadn't taken the time to study the room then so as she walked into it now she found herself quite shocked by it.

It was perhaps the biggest en-suite she had ever seen. There was a huge shower cubicle in the far corner, big enough for two, and there was a bath as big as an emperor size bed that was built into the floor like a swimming pool. The walls were made of white marble. It was clear that this room hadn't been used in a long time -_ in fact it looked completely untouched. _There were fresh black towels hanging on a rail and her eyes suddenly fell upon a shelving unit full of bath lotions and different shampoos and conditioners.

The urge to take a long hot bubble bath became too hard to resist and Hermione stepped over to the bath and began to fill it. She grabbed numerous bath lotions; one for muscle ache, one to help relax, and one to moisturise the skin. She poured a bit of each of them into the bath and watched as they were transformed into foamy bubbles.

Once the bath was full she peeled off her clothes and climbed down into the deep bath. She sunk down under the hot water until just her head and shoulders where poking out of the water. She closed her eyes and let the hot, relaxing, aching muscle relieving, moisturising magic envelope her body.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a bath and that just made this one all the better. Back at the prison the only chance of a shower was to be outside when it rained, occasionally they were all led down to an old shower block but here men and women were all put together and it was safer to shower in your clothes. She was so happy that she could strip down here and really get her body clean._ She was thrilled at the thought that she wasn't going to smell like a foot anymore._

She opened her eyes and looked around the bathroom but the steam from the hot bath water continued to rise, filling the bathroom so that she could barely see through it. She gave up in the end and once more closed her eyes and simply let herself relax into the merciful water. She was becoming so relaxed that she was finding it harder and harder not to open her eyes when she wanted to. They felt heavy like lead, she knew she should get out of the bath but the hot water felt _too _good.

**~0~0~**

Snape knocked on her bedroom door…_again_, this time a little louder than the last. If she was awake she was ignoring him and he suddenly wondered if this was what she wanted, him to walk in and give her the opportunity to attack him again.

"Not bloody likely!" he muttered and flicked his wand at the door. _It flew open with a loud bang._

He waited a moment but no movement came from within the room, but he did suddenly get a whiff of lavender, vanilla and eucalyptus. He stepped into the doorway and looked around the room it was clearly empty. He looked over at the bathroom door and could see steam coming from under it. With an exasperated sigh he walked over to the door and slammed the side of his fist on it three times.

"Granger!" he yelled.

He waited but got no reply. He slammed the side of his fist against it again, even louder this time. He waited but again he got no answer.

"You have till the count of three to come out or I _will _come in!" he growled through the wood.

He waited the full three seconds and when she neither spoke to him nor came out he threw the door open with another flick of his wand. To his relief she wasn't in the shower nor was she sat on the toilet but it suddenly confused him because he couldn't see her anywhere and he knew there was nowhere to hide within the room. He noticed the full bath then realisation and panic suddenly washed over him.

"Shit!" he cursed as he ran over to it, tucking his wand into his robe.

He jumped down into bath and reached down under the water. He felt her below the surface and wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her up out of the water. He climbed out of the absurdly deep bath and carried her out of the room, his dripping wet robes leaving a trail of water behind him.

He placed a lifeless looking Hermione down on the bed and pulled out his wand again and held it over her throat. "_Anapneo_!" he said clearly.

The moment the magic left his wand and cleared the water from her throat Hermione began to cough, coughing up even more water. Knowing she was out of danger he reached over and grabbed the edge of the blanket from on top of the bed and pulled it over her naked body and it perfections. Despite his best efforts to not pay attention his betraying mind seemed to photograph the image. He tried desperately not to think about the fact that she was naked beneath the thin blanket or that he had just touched and held her naked body. He refused to let himself think about a student or rather an ex-student in such a way.

He looked up at her face as she continued to cough and splutter. "What happened?" she asked between coughs.

"I was rather hoping _you_ would tell me!" he snapped at her.

"I must have fallen asleep in the bath." she said as she pulled the blanket tighter around her body. "Wait a minute, how did you know I was in the bath?" she asked in a sharp tone.

Snape certainly did not appreciate the tone, "I came to check on you and it's a bloody good job I did, you foolish girl!" he spat angrily at her.

"You were checking on me whilst I was in the bath?" she shrieked at him.

"What exactly are you implying?!" he said as he stood up, towering over her.

Hermione shifted up onto her knees, holding the quilt around herself as she glared at him. She was more on his level this way. "I'd like to know why you thought it appropriate to spy on me when I was bathing?"

"Oh, do get over yourself, Granger!" Snape snapped as he shoved her back down flat on the bed. "Don't ever think I would want to spy on you for such reasons!"

"The Dark Lord gave me to you to use as you wanted and you accepted, so what am I supposed to think when you then show up in the bathroom while I'm in the bath?!"

"May I remind you that I just saved your life!" Snape yelled at her before he turned and walked towards the door, he was bored of this conversation. However, her next words stopped him dead in his tracks.

"For what, so I can die in a battle back at the prison with hundreds of muggle haters watching and cheering instead?!"

He turned to look at her and saw the pain etched on her face again. "Did you really fall asleep in the bath?" he asked her curiously.

She glared at him part of her wasn't even going to bother justifying his question with an answer but she suddenly remembered his words from earlier. "If I wanted to kill myself I could find much quicker ways to do so." she shot back at him with a smirk.

Snape scoffed at her and walked out, slamming and locking the door behind him. It was late and he wanted to go to bed and forget all about the insufferable little chit, however with the image of her wet naked body etched into his mind he was sure he was in for a restless night.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please review and tell me what you think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to everyone reading and thanks for the reviews, alerts and favourites and things. **

**Disclaimer: I wish they belonged to me but they don't.**

**Chapter 4**

Hermione was lying in bed, she had been awake, or at least half awake, for about an hour. She simply refused to get out of bed yet. She wasn't sure when she had last slept so well. It seemed like it had been months. She yawned loudly and stretched out as much as was humanly possible.

She suddenly shot up in bed as a loud _cracking_ sound echoed around her room. She relaxed when she saw the little house elf who had brought her food yesterday standing at the foot of her bed.

"Tula did not mean to frighten Miss Granger. Tula came to tell Miss Granger that breakfast is ready." The little elf said in a squeaky voice.

Hermione just smiled at her, "Thank you, Tula. Please call me Hermione, not Miss Granger."

The little Elf smiled, honoured to be allowed to address someone in such a way.

"Will I be eating it in here?" Hermione asked the sweet little elf who had even bigger eyes than Dobby had.

"No, Hermione. Headmaster Snape would like you to eat it out there with him." Tula said as she walked over to the door and opened it.

"Would he, now? Well you can tell Headmaster Snape to shove breakfast up his a…" Hermione stopped herself upon seeing the worried, in fact terrified, look on Tula's face. "Tell him I'll be right out." she decided - something that made Tula smile.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Snape was seated at the table that now stood in the far end of his living room; it was something that had been added to his quarters only this morning. He was reading the Daily Prophet as he waited for Hermione to join him for breakfast. Tula had told him that Hermione had agreed she would join him and then she had Disapparated. He tried not to look up from his paper when he heard her bedroom door open but his head didn't seem in control of what his body wanted to do.

The moment his eyes caught sight of her they locked onto the fact that she had on a simple spaghetti-strap t-shirt that seemed to hug her body. Even if she was too skinny she still looked good in the shirt. She had on a pair of three quarter leggings that made her legs look even longer than they were. All he could think was she looked stunning.

He watched her walk over to the table and sit down opposite him. He had to close his eyes when she suddenly raked her hand through her hair. He had always wondered what made her hair so bushy but had failed to notice that at some point she had learnt to tame it. For a moment he studied how it now hung in sweet soft curls around her delicate face.

_Merlin, stop staring at her!_ he scolded himself. He returned to his paper, no idea what he was reading about. He was waiting to hear the sounds of her tucking into the breakfast that sat on the table waiting to be eaten, _but nothing._ He moved his paper down so he could see her and gave her a questioning look.

"What are you waiting for, my permission?" he asked.

The look she gave him told him that this was in fact what she was waiting for and he quickly realised back in the prison she undoubtedly had learnt to wait for permission to do anything. He sighed, rolled his eyes and said, "You do not need to wait for my permission to eat. You may do so whenever you want and you may eat however much you want. Merlin knows you need it, you're practically skin and bone." he said.

Hermione wasted no time in grabbing some toast, she didn't even bother putting anything on it she just took a big greedy bite. Next she grabbed a crumpet, this she smeared some butter onto and then took a greedy bite. She placed both half eaten pieces of food down on the plate in front of her and poured herself some orange juice and took a long swig of it.

Snape watched as she took a long swig of it. He then watched as she grabbed an egg and some bacon and tucked into them too. He was glad the elf had brought such a big selection of food up because clearly Hermione wanted some of it all.

His eyes travelled down to her throat and he watched as she swallowed down her food. Her neck was perfect, even with the scars he could see on it. He moved his eyes to her shoulders and saw more scars, _more battle wounds no doubt._

Once more he found himself having to force his eyes off her. _What's wrong with you_? he spat silently at himself. He had to keep silently telling himself she was once his student. Still this didn't seem to work and he found his eyes wanting to move back to study her.

He had to do something to stop this. "I would much rather you wore more clothes when you are in my presence." he said.

"I am wearing clothes," she said, swallowing the mouthful of food she had first.

"Not enough!" he barked at her.

She just rolled her eyes at him. "I figured you wore enough clothes for the both of us." she shot back at him.

She had to smile when he looked up at her, clearly not impressed by her. _Like she cared? _"So are you teaching today?" she asked. She was hoping he would say _yes_ and leave her alone so she could find some way to escape.

"Since I became Headmaster I no longer get to teach." he said.

_Great,_ Hermione thought to herself. "So do you just sit in your office all day?" she asked.

"Miss Granger, are you trying to get rid of me?"

"I'd love to get rid of you." she spat coldly at him.

Snape just smirked, "I can assure you wherever I go you will either be coming along with me or will be kept somewhere where I know someone trustworthy is keeping an eye on you."

"You make it sound like I'm a troublemaker."

"I know you are! Don't think I don't know about you breaking into my personal store cupboard during your school years."

"I don't know what you're talking about." she lied as she took another bite of her toast.

Snape just scoffed. "Today I wish to start your training." he said suddenly, causing Hermione to almost choke on her toast.

She just looked at him and shook her head, "You've got to be joking."

"Miss Granger, I don't joke."

"I hadn't noticed." she spat back at him sarcastically, "The answer is no by the way. I'm not training!" she told him and threw her toast down and pushed herself up from the table.

"Sit back down and finish your breakfast!" he told her.

"No!" she yelled at him. "I'm not some pig you can fatten up before you send me to slaughter!"

"No, but you need to start eating properly again so your body has what it needs to get you through training. You need to train properly and exercise regular so you keep fit. Honestly, it's a wonder you've survived this long, you're so out of shape."

"There's nothing wrong with the shape I'm in!" she protested.

"Miss Granger, I could snap you in two by blowing on you."

As if to prove a point Hermione flung her fist at him, it was just inches away from his face when he caught hold of her wrist and pushed it down to her side. "If you were properly trained you probably would have hit me then before I stopped you."

Hermione ripped her wrist free from his grasp. She suddenly realised that some training might help her, if only to use it against Snape in an attempt to escape. "Fine, when do we start?" she asked.

"As soon as you've finished breakfast." he told her.

"I'm not hungry anymore." she lied.

"If you don't finish eating then your training will not begin."

She rolled her eyes at him and walked over to the table. She grabbed her half eaten piece of toast and finished it off. "Now I'm done." she told him.

Snape knew she would eat more and he was actually stubborn enough to make her sit down and eat everything he demanded but he knew she was just as stubborn and would probably eat everything as slow as she possibly could and he just didn't have that sort of time to waste. If he wanted to see her survive another battle he had to train her properly. The best place for this he decided was the empty Quidditch pitch.

**~0~0~0~0~**

The pitch was somewhere Hermione remembered well. She had lots of good memories from here. She had sat in the stands and watched many games played on this pitch, some much more eventful than others. As she remembered Harry's first game she remembered what she had done to Snape upon thinking it was him who was trying to shake Harry from him broom.

Suddenly lost in the memory she missed the warning of Snape's oncoming jinx and it hit her hard, sending her crashing to the wet floor. The sloppy mud offered a softer landing than she had expected but it still hurt.

She looked up a moment later only to find Snape standing over her, looking down at her with a rather annoyed look on his face. "If you paid more attention this would go better." he sneered.

"I was distracted." she told him as she pushed herself back up onto her feet.

"By what?" Snape asked, in a tone that suggested no matter what it was the answer would bore him.

"Thinking about the time when I set you on fire during a Quidditch match." she smirked.

Snape glared at her and took a step forward but Hermione was quick and with a flick of the wand he had lent her cast _Expelliarmus_, causing the wand in his hand to fly out of his grip. She tried to catch it in the air but he was quicker and grabbed hold of it before she had chance. He grabbed hold of her shirt and pulled her towards him, so their faces were just inches apart. She couldn't tell if he was pissed off that she had disarmed him or because she had admitted to being the one who had set fire to his robes all those years ago.

"I could always change my mind about training you, Granger." he growled at her.

"I can't say such a thing would shock me, after-all it's your fault I'm even stuck in that place." she growled back at him.

Her words shocked Snape but he managed to hide such a thing from his expression. He _had_ been the one to catch her during the battle at Hogwarts but he hadn't been the one to take her to the prison for Muggle's. The Death Eaters had been the ones to take her and the other captives there.

They continued to glare at one another until someone clearing their throat behind Snape brought them back to reality. Snape let go of her but not before shoving her slightly, causing her to fall flat on her arse.

She decided she probably deserved it, _she did set the guy on fire, _but it still annoyed her. She pushed herself back up to her feet and watched as someone she knew as one of the Carrow twins walked over. Snape walked over to him and listened to what he had to say to him. Hermione could only wonder what they were talking about. She couldn't hear them from where she was but from the way Snape turned to look at her she guessed he didn't like what he was being told.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Less than five minutes later Hermione found herself being dragged behind Snape as he raced through the corridors of the castle. He had a tight grip on her wrist as he led her towards the Hospital wing. His grip was beginning to hurt her, not that she would let him know that. She knew she would have a bruise later.

Finally they walked into the hospital wing. Hermione saw the other Carrow twin standing at the foot of one of the hospital beds. She could also hear the familiar voice of Madame Pomfrey and she watched as the healing witch walked out from behind the curtain surrounding the bed and rushed off into her office.

Snape walked closer to the bed, pulling Hermione closer to it with him. She couldn't help but gasp at the sight of the small first year who lay on the bed, her small body convulsing wildly every few seconds. Hermione knew what was wrong with her. She was suffering from having been under the Cruciatus curse too long. Her body was in shock and she knew the girl was in a world of pain.

Snape let go of her wrist and pulled out his wand. She had no idea what spell he cast but the small student stopped convulsing and became still, she almost looked peaceful until her face contorted in pain. _Hermione knew the after effects of the Cruciatus would last for hours._

She glanced up as Madame Pomfrey came out of her office carrying a small potions bottle. She stepped around the female Carrow twin and moved to stand by the student's bedside. Hermione watched as Snape gently lifted the students head slightly so that Madame Pomfrey could pour some of the potion into their mouth.

"Drink up, my dear." Madame Pomfrey said sweetly.

Hermione had always liked her. She had such a healing way about her beyond being able to cure anything but death itself. Her voice alone could heal, she was such a kind hearted woman.

She sounded anything but when she snapped, "You didn't need to come here, Headmaster." at Snape.

"I beg to differ." he replied.

"This is the fifth student this week and it's only Wednesday." she spat angrily.

Hermione couldn't miss the emotion in her voice, the sadness…or was it sympathy.

"It's keeping you in a job isn't it?!" the Carrow twin spat at her.

"You are no longer needed here," Snape replied, "Go, I will deal with you later!" he warned the twin.

Hermione looked up to watch her leave. The look the woman gave her was meant to intimidate her, but Hermione was too furious by what she had seen and heard to be intimidated. She turned back to look at the student and her anger suddenly felt ready to boil over. She couldn't believe a student had been treated so badly at Hogwarts. What made her all the more angry was that Snape was letting it happen.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Snape let Hermione walk into his private quarters first. He stepped in behind her and closed the door behind him. He watched as Hermione stormed across the room from him. He knew she was angry by what she had seen, he didn't know that anger was all aimed at him.

"I don't think there has ever been a time in your life when you have been this silent for so long." he shot at her.

His words made her anger spiral out of control. She grabbed the nearest thing to her which just so happened to be a book and turned to throw it at him. Snape pulled his wand out and turned the book into black feathers that floated to the floor in front of him.

"You should wish yourself lucky that my reflexes are so quick!" he warned her.

As her anger bubbled further she grabbed the snake lamp and moved to throw it at him, but to her shock he Disapparated in front of her. She screamed and let go of the lamp as he Apparated right in front of her. He reached out and grabbed her before she could step back from him.

"What is your problem?!" he yelled at her.

"YOU!" she yelled and attempted to swat his hands off her but it was no good.

"I beg your pardon?!"

"Harry and Ron always said you were a foul git and they were right!"

"How am I so foul when I'm the only one trying to help you?! Where are Potter and Weasley now?!"

"You were the one who turned me over to Voldemort, you are the one who left me to rot in some prison fighting for my life and being manhandled and fondled by guards. Then I come back to the one place I felt safe and you're running it just like the prison. How can you possibly justify the Carrow twins using first year student's as Cruciatus practice dummies?!"

"I might be Headmaster but don't be mistaken in thinking that that means I am the one who controls how this school is run!"

"Oh please! You've always hated students. I bet you couldn't wait to kill Dumbledore so you could run this place how you wanted."

"You have no idea how much I hate how things have turned out! I made a promise to Dumbledore that I would protect the students of this school and that is what I am trying to do."

"Tell me how is letting the Carrow twins torture the students your idea of protecting them?" she asked.

"The Cruciatus is bad, there's no denying that, but they will never be killed whilst they are here. Out of this school I can't protect them. I have no say in what happens to them."

"If you care so much then why did you hand me over to him?" she asked.

Snape wanted to answer her, but he knew he had to be cautious how much he said within the school grounds. _The saying "walls have ears" came to mind._ "Go to bed. You have more training early in the morning." he said in the end.

Hermione just glared at him and he could see the tears building in her eyes.

"You're despicable!" she spat at him before she ripped herself free from his grip and headed into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Snape stood there looking at her door. He could only agree with her. He was trying to keep the students safe and he had meant it when he said at least they wouldn't be killed here. The only students now at Hogwarts were pure bloods, or worthy half-bloods, these were usually treated pretty badly compared to the pure bloods.

Any muggle students were either in hiding or had been sent to the prison to fight in the muggle wars. Deep down he knew he should be doing more to protect the students who no longer attended Hogwarts. He knew they deserved his help. Most hadn't been as lucky as Hermione, but he knew her luck was due to run out….but not if he could help it.

**TBC**

**Thanks so much for reading, please review and let me know what you think. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed and to all those reading. Sorry this has taken so long, but I've been on holiday. Hope this chapter makes up for it.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 5**

_**One week later. **_

Hermione was down on the Quidditch pitch with Snape. Today's training was going about as well as it had been all week. She was angry with Snape still after learning how he was allowing the school to be run and all she wanted to do was hurt him for it. Give him a taste of what the students were going through. She had no interest in training for the Muggle wars, she didn't care whether she survived them or not anymore. Hogwarts was the last place she thought she could go to where she would be safe. _In reality Hogwarts was no better than the prison._

She swung her arm and pointed her wand at Snape but he could tell instantly what she was going to do before she had done it so he was easily able to deflect the jinx and it was sent straight back at Hermione. She landed in the mud on her knees and cried out in pain and frustration.

Snape waited for her to get up but she wasn't even attempting to. "Get up!" he told her, he was feeling as annoyed as she clearly was.

He was feeling it because he knew she could be called forth for a battle any day now and she hadn't learnt a thing. He continued to wait for her to obey him but still she didn't get up. "Get up, now!" he bellowed at her but still she didn't budge.

He growled with frustration and stormed over to her, ready to drag her up from her knees if he had to. As he got closer he saw the slightest movement of her arm, she was going to jinx him. He hadn't expected the trick she was pulling but he was prepared for it and the moment she moved to cast the jinx he cast his own spell.

"_Expelliarmus_!" he yelled.

Hermione could only watch as her wand flew through the air and into his hand. She pushed herself up and threw a handful of mud at his face. It hit him right in the eyes, temporarily blinding him. She ran at him and tried to pull the wands from his hand but he grabbed her shirt and pulled her backwards and let go of her, letting her fall to the wet floor on her backside.

She tried to quickly push herself up but Snape moved and stood with his foot on her stomach. He didn't dare put all his weight on her but used enough to keep her down. "You're fighting with your heart not your head! That is also why you're failing miserably! You'll learn nothing at this rate!"

"Hitting you with one good stinging jinx is all I care about!" she snapped.

"What then, you'll pay attention? Actually pay attention and learn something from these sessions?" he asked, his voice still raised in anger.

"Maybe!"

Snape had a thought and decided to go with it. He stepped away from her and threw her wand back to her. He then tucked his own into his sleeve. "Then go ahead!" he said holding his arms out to the side of him.

Hermione was waiting for the _'but' _or the trick in this act. _Why would he let her hit him with a jinx and not even try to shield it? _Still she grabbed the wand and pushed herself up onto her feet. She was dripping with wet, cold mud and as she stood there the rain began to fall, soon it was hammering down so heavily that it was almost deafening.

Snape still stood there, just waiting for her to throw whatever stinging jinx she wanted at him. She took her stance and aimed her wand at him. She was about to throw a jinx but found she couldn't. She shook the feeling off and took her aim again. He was standing there, still as a statue, it would have been more than easy for her to hit him and hurt him. She took a deep breath and prepared herself to throw a jinx….. _still_ she couldn't do it.

She let out a frustrated cry and threw the wand back to him. "I can't!" she yelled to him over the heavy down pour.

"Yes you can, I'm standing here and I won't stop you…."

"-I can't! I don't want this. I don't want to hurt people, even someone as despicable as you!"

"If you won't fight in a battle then you will be killed!"

"So be it! Better that than turn into a murderer….better death than turning into you!" she yelled, her voice shaky.

The moment the words left her lips she burst into tears. She fell down onto her knees and buried her face behind her hands as her tears continued to fall. She didn't hear Snape walk over to her, she just felt warmth envelope her shaking body as he draped his black robe over her. He reached down and hooked his arm under hers and pulled her to his feet.

To his complete shock she threw her arms around him and held onto him. Immediately he went to grab her, to pull her off him, but he could feel her shaking and could hear her quiet sobs and suddenly all he wanted to do was hold her and comfort her so he wrapped his arms around her and held onto her and simply let her cry.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Snape was sat at the table, two elves, one of which was Tula, were just finishing laying out a table full of food.

"Anything else, Headmaster?" Tula asked Snape with her head bowed.

"That will be all, thank you." he said.

The elves nodded and with a click of their fingers were gone. Snape sat there and waited for Hermione to join him for diner. He presumed like him she had wanted to shower after having been covered in mud and drenched with rain on the Quidditch pitch.

He had showered and was now dressed in black trousers and a black button up shirt. It felt odd to be dressed so casually in front of a student but at the same time it was nice to not be wearing his usual teaching robes.

He looked up when Hermione's beddoor's opened. He watched as she walked over to the table and noticed she was wearing long grey sweat pants and a grey long sleeved shirt. Clearly she had decided to take on board what he had said to her about wearing clothes that covered more of her body. It made him scoff to think that it had only taken a week for her to actually do so.

Hermione sheepishly sat down at the table opposite him. He watched as she filled her plate with only a small amount of food and noticed that she picked the tiniest lamb chop from a pile of humungous ones.

He rolled his eyes and pushed himself up, he knew she was hungry and was simply being polite by not indulging in a big meal. He walked to the side of her and reached over her and grabbed her plate. She could only watch as he pilled more roasted veg and creamy mash potato onto her plate. She couldn't help but smile when he picked the biggest chop to put on her plate too. He sat the plate back down in front of her and grabbed a jug that was filled with delicious mint gravy.

"Gravy?" he asked her.

All she could do was nod and then laugh as he poured a ton of it over her meal.

"Enjoy!" he said and then moved to sit back down.

"Thank you." Hermione said to him before she tucked into her meal.

"Merlin knows you need the food." he said as he filled his own plate with an equally sized meal.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Snape was sat on the couch reading. Hermione had sat on the other couch and had leant a book from his collection. However, she had only read a few pages before she had fallen asleep, and although he tried to read his book Snape found himself constantly glancing over at her sleeping form.

The week with him had done her good. She had put some weight back on but nowhere near enough to class her as healthy. She no longer looked as pale as she had, and he noticed that her once pale skin was now a delicate caramel colour. He watched as she shuffled from off her side and onto her back, pushing her shirt up in the process and exposing part of her stomach.

Snape rolled his eyes in frustration. It was like torture seeing the toned caramel perfection of her flesh and not being able to touch it. He pushed himself up and went to his room and grabbed the green silk blanket off his bed. He carried it into the living room and carefully draped it over her. He watched as she snuggled into the blanket. He couldn't help but notice how truly beautiful she was and he suddenly felt so guilty for having let her be taken as a prisoner to be used in the Muggle wars. It had made her grow up too fast. She'd skipped being a teenager and had gone straight to being a woman.

"I'm truly sorry, Hermione." he whispered to her as he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

After a moment he returned to the couch and sat down. He had just opened his book again when he felt a familiar burning sensation in his arm. _He knew what it meant_. He was being called and he had no choice but to go to the Dark Lord.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Luckily he hadn't had to go far. Voldemort and his closest followers where gathered in the Forbidden forest. Snape walked as confident as usual up to Voldemort and dipped his head in respect, "My Lord."

"Severus, how are you finding your new toy?" he asked, getting straight to the point as usual.

"Distracting." Snape replied, it was the truth.

His reply was met by an odd sounding laugh from Voldemort, it sounded more like a snake hissing, not that that surprised Snape.

"Then you are putting her to good use?" Lucius Malfoy asked from beside him.

The question disgusted Snape but he had to answer. "Quite frequently." he lied.

"About time you had some fun, might help to lighten you up…." Bellatrix said to him, "So to speak…" she said as she flicked his black hair with her fingers.

"You wished to talk to me, my Lord?" Snape asked, bored by the meeting already, especially if it was only to inquire about his recent sexual activities.

"The mudblood has been chosen to fight." Voldemort told him.

"When?" he asked as a sickening feeling grew in his stomach.

"Soon, Severus. She has been specifically chosen by her opponent." Voldemort said.

"Who?" he asked.

"Someone you know, a Ministry worker, a Dolores Umbridge." Voldemort told him

Snape knew the woman was an evil bitter excuse of a life and her hatred towards Muggle's wasn't a secret. He knew from her past experience that she had issues with every member of the Golden Trio. It just happened to be that Hermione's blood status made her a more favourable target. He knew there was bad blood, _so to speak_, between the two women.

Voldemort noticed Snape's obvious lack of enthusiasm towards the battle. Snape knew this and so had to think of something quick, "She is proving most useful at the moment, my Lord. May I ask for some more time with her?"

Voldemort just smiled at one of his favourite followers. "You have always been a most faithful servant, Severus, how could I deny you the pleasures of such a pretty young creature. However, your time with her_ is_ limited. She will fight Umbridge in one week's time. If she survives you may continue to use her as you please, if not then I fear you will have to find yourself a new toy."

"Thank you, my Lord." Snape said and once more dipped his head in respect.

"In other news," Voldemort began, "The Potter boy has been spotted again. Let's hope soon he is brought before me where he will receive the punishment he deserves, the same punishment his pathetic father and his mudblood mother received." Voldemort spat.

Snape had to bite his tongue and force himself not to react. This wasn't the first time the Dark Lord had insulted Lily Potter and it wouldn't be the last but Snape knew it best to keep his cool and be angry about it later. _After all he had no other choice._

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading, please leave a review. **

**Anyone looking forward to her fight with Umbridge, the woman is after all an evil cow!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry it's taken so long to update. Please forgive me and feel free to review and yell at me at the same time. ; )**

**As usual the parts in italics are flashbacks.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 6**

_**6 days later**_

Hermione was sat at the dining table playing with the uneaten breakfast on her plate. She was in no mood to eat it, she was in no mood to do anything but go back to bed, climb under the heavy quilt and hide out for as long as possible. The same mood she had been in all week and it was a mood that had rubbed off onto Snape.

She'd been in this mood since Snape had returned through the fireplace.

_She'd almost jumped out of her skin thanks to his noisy entrance. She had immediately guessed he'd met with the Dark Lord and knew it hadn't gone well by the way he was acting._

"_What's happened?" she asked him as he stormed across the room then stormed back over to the fireplace. _

"_You have to fight in one week's time. I was sure he would give me more time."_

_Hermione felt like her heart had dropped out of her butt. She didn't want to fight. It was the last thing she wanted. "I wonder what it will be this time, a troll, another dragon or a death eater…?" she thought out loud. _

_She looked up when she felt Snape watching her. "What?" she asked, knowing he knew something and wasn't telling her. _

"_I know who you're fighting." he said._

"_Who?" she asked. _

"_Dolores Umbridge." he told her hesitantly. _

_Hermione looked at him wide eyed and a little confused. She knew the witch didn't like her, but she didn't realise she out right wanted her dead, "As in Professor Umbridge?"_

"_You know more than one Dolores Umbridge?" he snapped. _

"_Well, now I kind of wish I did!" she replied, "The woman's pure evil, but she's still a human being…how the hell am I supposed to kill her?"_

"_I'll help you work something out…"_

"_-Work something out, like how to kill a woman, even one as vile as her?" Hermione asked in disbelief. _

_Eventually all she could do was shake her head and without another word she got up and walked to her room and cried herself to sleep._

"Eat!" she heard, bringing her out of her thoughts.

Hermione glanced up at Snape who was sat opposite her at the table, glaring at her. She stabbed her fork into her fried egg busting it wide open and then threw her fork onto the table and glared back at him.

Snape wanted to yell at her, order her to eat like he'd had to do all week but all he seemed able to do was see the sadness, the fear, and the exhaustion in her eyes. "You need to eat." he told her softly.

"So I can die with a full stomach?"

Snape found that he had to breathe deeply and really concentrate on not yelling at her. Calmly as possible he said, "So that you have sustainable energy to practise for your…"

"-Fight to the death with Umbridge tomorrow?" she finished.

"I'm sorry, I tried." he said in his own defence.

"Why would you care if I fight or not?"

"I do care, I care a lot. The last thing I wish to see is you hurt. That's why I have been training you so hard this week, making you eat, trying to strengthen you up."

Hermione just looked at him. It was true he had been training her hard this week. She found she was falling asleep at every given opportunity because she was so exhausted. She did feel tons better for being able to eat decent food, but there was a part of her who still felt like an animal being fattened up to be sent to slaughter.

"I knew Umbridge never particularly liked me, but to go this far…" she thought out loud.

"Things have indeed changed. Since the Dark lord has gained control of…well of what seems like everything, people have become equally as dark as he is."

"And it's us mere Muggle's who seem to be suffering!" she scoffed.

"Well, I suppose we shouldn't waste any more time, let's get training." she said and pushed herself up from the table. Snape could only follow her lead.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Later that evening and the night before her fight with Umbridge, Hermione had decided on having a long soak in the huge and welcoming bath tub in her bathroom. She loved the damn thing and decided if she died it would be the one thing she would miss the most… before quickly realising it was a stupid thought as she wouldn't have chance to miss a thing once she was dead.

After a half hour of soaking she decided it best to get out before she wrinkled like a raisin. It hadn't taken her long to throw on a pair of grey sweat pants and a baby blue spaghetti strap t-shirt. She was thinking of just getting in bed but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep and the urge to go sit out in the living room in front of the fire became too strong to resist, so she did just that.

It was warm sitting on the rug in front of the fire. It was oddly calming too. She was so busy watching the flames dance about in the fireplace that she didn't hear Snape walk up behind her. She almost jumped out of her skin when he suddenly spoke to her.

"You should be sleeping." he said.

"Do you have to creep up on me like that?!" she snapped as she tried to steady her heart that was pounding against her chest.

"I am not an animal, Miss Granger. I don't creep, I walk, and I would have thought your training had told you to listen and pay attention to your surroundings."

"Clearly I need more training." she said looking back into the flames.

"When you get back after tomorrows fight we can continue on with your training." Snape said.

"And what makes you so sure I'll be coming back?" she asked turning to face him again.

"Despite what you or the rest of the Golden trio might think I am a good teacher." he said with a slight smile.

Hermione just smiled back at him before turning to look back at the flames. After a moment she said, "I couldn't sleep, which is why I'm sat here."

"I could offer you a mild sleeping draught." he suggested.

Hermione just shook her head. "No thanks."

"Please, try to get some sleep." he said.

"Would you mind if I slept out here, on the couch."

"I'm sure your bed is far more comfortable."

"True, but the fire is soothing." she confessed.

"Fine, but only for tonight. I'll go bring you a blanket, get yourself comfy." he told her.

Hermione climbed up onto the couch and lay down. A moment later Snape returned with a blanket from off his own bed and placed it over her.

"Thank you." she said to him as she fixed it into place.

"Good'night." he said to her unenthusiastically as he walked towards his room.

"Professor Snape!" Hermione called out to him, stopping him in his tracks.

"What is it?" he asked as he turned to face her. However her face was mostly hidden by the blanket she had snuggled down into.

"Can you stay out here with me for a while….just until I fall asleep?" It felt like such a pathetic request but still she asked it.

She got no reply and was expecting to hear the slam of his door, but to her delight she heard him sit down in the chair next to hers. She heard him open up his book and the soft whoosh of him turning the pages, and the gentle crackle of the logs burning on the fire, soon sent her off into a deep sleep.

**~0~0~0~0~**

_**The next day**_

As she was dragged down the prison corridor, Hermione found herself back in the same maroon t-shirt, leggings and matching pumps. She hated this uniform. _Clothes only fit to be killed in._

The guard came to a stop and pushed her into the familiar tunnel that led into the battle arena. She fell flat to the floor but she knew it best to get up and move straight for the battle ground, it was that or feel the pain of a stinging jinx from the guard's, but it appeared they had missed this and so threw a bunch of stinging jinx's at her anyway the moment she was on her feet.

She fell to the floor, into the cold muddy water that lined the tunnel. She couldn't help but yelp in pain at the stinging jinxes. All she could do was wait for the pain to pass. Eventually it did and she was left lying in the mud, struggling to get her breath back.

"Have fun!" one of the Death Eaters then shouted to her as she crawled towards the entrance of the tunnel away from them and their stinging jinxes.

The tunnel was as eerie as Hermione remembered it to be. Slowly she made her way out into the battle arena. As she usually did, she took in all her surroundings. The arena was covered in piles of huge boulders, piled on top of each other like towers. However, the majority of the space was empty, nothing else to hide behind. _Umbridge wanted to see her clear and Hermione knew the open landscape of the arena only made her an easier target._

She ignored the familiar sounds of the crowd booing her and shouting vile comments. She was trying to spot Umbridge, she knew she would be waiting somewhere, ready to strike and her training told her to be prepared.

She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her back and fell down onto on knees, grunting in pain, but she wasted no time in pushing herself back up onto her feet. She turned to face where the assault had come from. She saw Umbridge standing beside a tall tower of boulders that she had been hiding behind.

"Miss Granger, you're late." The plump little woman said to her before flashing one of her trademark smirks.

A second later Hermione was back on her knees feeling the effects of a burning jinx. The jinx lasted for what felt like forever until eventually she fell forward onto her hands. She was trying to concentrate on anything but the pain she felt all over her body. _So far things weren't going well,_ she decided.

Finally the pain left her and she was left on her hands and knees looking up at Umbridge who now stood right in front of her. Hermione watched as a wand dropped to the floor beside her hand. The thing was battered and cracked and she doubted it would actually work properly enough to cast any strong jinxes but still she reached out and grabbed a hold of it.

"You haven't got your troll friend now, have you?" Umbridge said to Hermione as she quickly got to her feet, glaring at Umbridge as she steadied herself.

"For your information….he's a giant!" Hermione growled at her before throwing the strongest stinging jinx the wand would allow.

It was enough to knock Umbridge back into the tower of boulders behind her. Hermione steadied herself and waited for Umbridge to retaliate, she knew she would. She didn't hear the jinx Umbridge cast but she was able to shield it. She was then able to shield the next one and the next two. _Thank Merlin for all that training_, she thought to herself.

"Did you learn how to shield attacks during your training sessions with Potter!" Umbridge spat at her.

"You mean the lessons he was giving to other students right under your nose?!" Hermione mocked.

Umbridge growled at her through gritted teeth and threw three strong stinging jinxes at her one after the other. Hermione was easily able to shield all three attacks. Although she was delighted the crowd was anything but and she could hear them booing her, and once more she heard the familiar nasty insults that they always yelled at her. It was something she was easily able to turn off to. She'd been hearing the same vile names since her first days at Hogwarts. To say she was used to them was an understatement.

"I'm not a student anymore who you can bring to your office, you're a no one here and you don't scare me. You don't have your sickeningly pink office and your pathetic plates with cats on here do you?" Hermione spat at her.

Umbridge looked at Hermione and her trademark sickeningly falsely sweet smile spread across her face again, "You're quite right, you see the cats aren't on plates here." she said.

Her words confused Hermione for a moment until she heard the crowd begin to cheer. Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of a low rumbling growl from behind her. She very slowly turned around and couldn't hold in a gasp at the huge tiger behind her, standing on a rock looking at her like she was nothing more than a meal.

It sprang forward off the rock and roared at her. Hermione wasted no time in turning and running, right past Umbridge who giggled in delight as the tiger ran past her, chasing after Hermione.

**~0~0~**

Snape was surrounded by a cheering audience as he watched the fight. He however couldn't hide a slight look of concern at the huge tiger chasing after Hermione. It was Lucius who stepped closer to him and said, "A shame really. She may be a muggle but she's a rather stunning one. I'm sure that tiger won't leave her that way for you."

Snape just turned and glared at him. "We'll see." he said.

"Not to worry, Severus. After all there are many more Muggle's here who you could take home. If my sweet Narcissa weren't around I may even take a few home myself." The blonde haired wizard muttered.

Snape had no choice but to ignore him as he watched the tiger jump forward, its huge paws slamming into Hermione's back. _Get up, _he thought,_ use your wand!_

Thankfully Hermione did this, sending a stinging jinx over her shoulder, hitting the tiger that pounced off her and growled in anger. Hermione wasted no time in getting up and running over to some boulders. There was a small gap up between two of them in the middle of the pile, a sort of small cave. She quickly jumped up and threw herself into it.

She had to force herself back into it as much as she could as the tiger ran over to her and jumped up at the gap. She had to throw another stinging jinx at the huge hungry creature. Part of her hated to do it, she knew the beast was a much a prisoner as she was.

She could hear the audience getting pissed off by her act. The tiger couldn't get to her thanks to the stinging jinxes she was throwing at it. She barely heard the spell that Umbridge cast but she knew which one it had been as her wand was magically snatched out of her hand. It landed a few feet away from the entrance of the small cave.

She was so busy watching that that she didn't see the tiger launch at her, she just felt its jaw clamp down on her shoulder. She screamed in agony as it dragged her from the cave and out for the audience to see. She tried to hit it as hard as her tiny fists would allow. She was desperate to get it to loosen its grip but it kept dragging her away from the cave.

Using all the strength she had she punched the tiger square in the face, the beast let go of her and jumped back. Hermione suddenly noticed that the beast had dragged her right over to her wand. She quickly snatched it up and pointed it at the tiger.

She screamed in more pain as the tiger's heavy paw ripped across her stomach, its razor sharp claws leaving behind deep bleeding wounds. Somehow she managed not to pass out and flicked her wand at the tiger and shouted "_Imperius_!"

The tiger, which was about to strike again suddenly stopped. Hermione sat up as best she could and looked into the tiger's eyes. She then turned to face Umbridge who suddenly looked very worried. She turned to face the tiger again who had also turned to look at Umbridge but was now looking Hermione in the eyes. She nodded to it and the tiger ran at Umbridge who turned and tried to run.

Hermione fell flat on her back and tried not to listen to Umbridge's screams or the sounds of the tiger ripping her apart. She kept hoping she would pass out, forget all this was happening. She didn't know when but at some point she had passed out, because when she woke up again she was in someone's arms, she was barely out of consciousness but she heard them say, "I hope I can save her, if only to have one more turn with her."

It was Snape's voice. "Then I wish you luck." Voldemort said back to him. "I'm sure after this defeat others will want to see her fight again if only to lose."

A moment later Hermione felt the familiar feeling of Disapparation. The moment the feeling was over the pain she was in hit her, seemingly aggravated by having just Apparated. She couldn't hold in her cries of agony.

She could feel her blood pulsing out of the deep wound on her stomach and on her shoulder. She tried to reach up and hold her hands over her wounds but her left arm seemed useless and just hung at her side. She could feel her blood seeping down it, dripping from her fingers.

"Hold on." She heard Snape to her.

She yelped in pain as she was placed down onto a bed, she had no idea if it was hers or not. "Please, help me. The pain….make it go away!" she begged.

"I'm going to." Snape told her.

Her vision was blurred by tears but she saw him step beside her and pull out small potions bottle. She had no idea what the stuff was but the moment Snape used the pipette to splash some drops over her wound she screamed in more pain.

"It will only hurt for a moment." Snape told her as he dropped more over her wounds.

Hermione could only cry in pain that seemed like it would never end and when it became too much she allowed unconsciousness to take over again and slipped into a world of pain free blackness.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading. Please review and let me know what you think. **


	7. Chapter 7

**I just want to say thank you to all those who read the last chapter and to all those who left a review. This chapter is a little shorter than the others but it was taking me ages to update. I'm finding it hard to find time to write at the moment but I promise I'm trying.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 7**

Snape was sat in a chair beside his bed. He was sat watching Hermione as she lay sleeping. He had been able to heal her wounds on the most part and was now just waiting for the final healing touches to take shape. Until this happened he knew that once she woke up Hermione would be in a lot of pain, which was why he was praying she would stay asleep for as long as possible.

He had tried reading a book whilst he waited but the sound of the pages turning seemed to echo loudly around his room. So he was just sat in total stillness and surrounded by total silence. He had been in such a hurry to heal her that he had carried her straight to his bedroom without even having considered putting her in her own bed. It was something he was beginning to regret as he was sure she wouldn't be thrilled by the idea of waking up in his room.

He was considering how best to move her into her own room without waking her when Hermione shuffled in the bed, this was followed by a soft whimpering sound. Snape moved forward to inspect, he could see she had moved on her shoulder and so knew that was most likely the source of her pain. He reached out to move her back off of her shoulder but he never got to do it.

He was too shocked by Hermione's quick and sudden reactions to be able to do anything about them. As quick as lighting she had sat upright, grabbed the pair of scissors he had used to cut bandages, off the bedside cupboard and had the tip of the blade pressed tightly against his throat. He could see such movements had caused her great pain and he more than admired the fact she was still maintaining her fierce hold of the scissors against his throat despite the fact she looked ready to pass out from the pain.

"Easy…" he told her calmly.

He watched her eyes dart around the room before moving back to him, "Where am I?"

Snape considered the possible consequences of telling her the truth but decided the truth was what she deserved. "You're back at Hogwarts. I brought you here to my room to heal you after your fight."

His words made her suddenly look around the room again, like she didn't believe she was really back at Hogwarts, or in his room, perhaps it was both but with her attention turned elsewhere he quickly reached up and snatched the scissors from her hand.

She quickly turned back to face him and he could see she was angry with herself for having become distracted and allowing herself to become unarmed. He watched as the look of anger suddenly turned into sadness. "Umbridge…?" she asked, her voice barely audible.

Snape hesitated as he thought of the best way to tell her what had happened. In the end he came up with just two words that said it all. "You won."

**~0~0~0~0~**

_**Two days later. **_

Snape was sat in his office. He could barely concentrate on what he was doing as he was too busy thinking about Hermione. She had been quiet since her fight with Umbridge. Her wounds were healing nicely and almost completely but he could see they still caused her some pain and she always turned down his offer of pain relieving potions and charms.

He'd had an Elf bring her a collection of books from the library but she hadn't so much as glanced at them and that really worried him. She was hardly eating again despite his threats to force her to do so. He hated having to leave her in his quarters alone, which is why he had just minutes ago sent Tula to go check on her.

He was a little shocked when the tiny Elf appeared in his office, she always had a worried look on her face in his presence but now she looked positively terrified.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"Tula went to check on Miss Hermione like Headmaster Snape asked, but Miss Hermione was not there." she said sheepishly, playing with the hem of her dress.

"Search the castle with the other Elfs!" he roared.

Tula disappeared without hesitation and with a loud crack. Snape rushed out of his office and began searching the castle himself, not wanting to waste a minute, he had to know where Hermione was.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Hermione was sat on a huge boulder overlooking Black lake. The lake wasn't the most spectacular looking lake in the world and the constant grey sky above it didn't help it seem anymore stunning but it was undeniably beautiful in its own way and Hermione did have a lot of memories concerning the lake.

She didn't look up when she heard the crack of someone Apparating behind her, instead she just continued to stare out over the lake.

"I'd really rather you let me know when you are going to leave my quarters." She heard Snape say as he moved closer to her.

"Sorry, guess I forgot that you need permission to leave your cell when you're in prison." she replied sadly.

Snape frowned at this comment before he climbed up onto the rock and sat beside her. He took off his robes and draped them around her shoulders. He could see she was shivering badly and wondered how long she had been sitting there for in the cold.

"If I must I will remind you that you are not in prison here."

"I may as well be, I mean you tell me when to eat, when to go to sleep…"

"May I please remind you that you hardly ever listen when I do _ask_ you to eat and go to sleep."

Hermione just smiled and laughed slightly.

"So you haven't forgotten." Snape said.

"Forgotten what?" she asked.

"How to smile and laugh." he replied.

Hermione looked at him and after a moment replied, "What would you care if I never smiled or laughed again?"

"I like your smile." He thought out loud.

Both he and Hermione turned to look at each other with the same look of shock on their face. Snape noticed how a moment later she turned away, smiling. He also noticed how she pulled his robes tighter around herself. "Why don't you come back inside, you look frozen." He suggested.

"I like it out here. I just want to stay out here a moment longer." She told him.

"Do you mind if I stay with you?" he asked.

"You're the headmaster, I'm pretty sure it's up to you what you do here." Hermione said with a slight laugh.

"If I had a choice I wouldn't be headmaster. I'd be much happier living in a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere where no one could ever find me."

"Sounds good to me." Hermione agreed.

For a moment they both sat there in silence, eventually Snape said, "Come on, let's go back inside before we both freeze to death on this blasted rock."

He jumped down and held his hand out for Hermione to take so he could help her down from off the rock. Once she was on her feet he expected her to pull her hand out of his, but she didn't, instead she just stared at him, looking into eyes that she had once found so cold, empty and yet intimidating, but right now they seemed so full of emotion that she had to double check it was him she was actually looking at. Little did she know Snape had found himself staring into her eyes too.

Suddenly they both found themselves moving in closer to the other one, their bodies were like a magnet and for a moment they just didn't seem able to pull their faces away.

Just before their lips touched Snape heard someone shouting out his name. He was thankful his back was to the person as it meant they didn't see the fact that he had been an inch away from kissing Hermione. He quickly glanced at her and she had to quickly look away from his gaze, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment.

He turned to face the person, his body hiding Hermione who stood perfectly still behind him. "What is it, Amycus?" Snape spat at the male of the Carrow twins, and Hogwarts deputy headmaster and Dark Arts professor.

"We've had some truants brought to the school by Snatchers, all of them Mudbloods, except for one, a pure-blood!" he explained with a sickening smile on his face.

Hermione had to try to pretend she hadn't heard the news, she knew it meant only one thing, but she needed to know who the non-Muggle student was. "Who is the pure-blood?" Snape asked.

"Weasley, Ronald Weasley!"

Suddenly Hermione felt like a surge of electricity was flooding through her. She barged past Snape and stormed towards the Amycus. "If you hurt him, if you hurt Ron!" she screamed at him.

She suddenly felt Snape's arm's wrapped around her body. "Go!" he yelled to Amycus, who did as he was told but not before glaring at Hermione.

The second she felt Snape loosen his grip around her she pulled away from him and then turned to face him. She slammed her fists against his chest as hard as she could over and over as she screamed, "I swear if you let something happen to him I will make you pay!"

Snape grabbed hold of her wrists so she couldn't hit him anymore. He hesitated before he then said, "I don't doubt that you would."

**TBC**

**So what will become of Ron, and where is Harry?**

**Thanks for reading, please review and let me know what you think.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks to everyone reading and to those who are reviewing. Sorry it's taken longer than I wanted it to but I haven't had a day off work for weeks, finally got a few days off now and I plan on updating and catching up on all my stories.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Chapter 8**

"I want to see him!" Hermione yelled at Snape as he dragged her by the wrist up towards his office. She knew he was ignoring her and it was making her more and more mad. She tried pulling her wrist free from his grasp but it was too tight.

Snape had to stop momentarily as the staircases began to move. He had been amazed by these things for only a week when he had first come to Hogwarts. After that he had learnt to hate them as they constantly made him late for lessons. He would always end up walking in late and all the other students would stare at him. James Potter and his posse would always find some other way to make more of a show of him during the dreaded walk to the back of the classroom to his seat. It was usually a tripping jinx or something equally as embarrassing.

As he waited for the stairs to stop moving he could feel Hermione trying to pull his hand from her wrist but her strength was no match for his, although he had to admit she was fairly storng for someone so petite. Still, he maintained a tight grip.

"Let me see Ron!" she yelled at him as she continued her efforts.

"Silence!" he warned her as the stairs came to a stop and he began dragging her again, having to take a slightly different route towards Dumbledore's old office now.

Hermione could only struggle against him and could do nothing to stop him as they finally made it to the huge stone Gargoyle guarding Snape's office. It opened up and Snape dragged her up the small spiral staircase into his office.

"Get off me!" she pleaded, "You're hurting me!" she growled at him as she slapped him hard on the back.

Only when the door to his office closed did he finally let go of her wrist, but not before swinging her round in front of him and pushing her against his desk. He quickly stepped in front of her practically pinning her to his desk.

She was shocked for a moment but quickly pulled herself together. "Let me see Ron!" she ordered.

"Enough!" he yelled at her, making her jump. He was sick of hearing her pleading.

She quickly realised ordering him to let her see Ron was not the best way to go about things, so she decided to try a new approach. "Please, please I'm begging you, let me see him. I need to know he's okay?!"

"You cannot see him yet." Snape growled before he took a step back from her.

Hermione sighed and slumped against the desk. "Then will you go see him, please? Will you make sure he's okay?"

"He will be questioned first?"

"Questioned?"

"Interrogated. They will try to find out where Potter is."

"By who?" she asked.

"Death eaters."

Hermione suddenly felt sick, "He'll never tell them." she told Snape.

"I know, which is why they won't give him a choice." Snape said.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Hermione was pacing round and round in Snape quarters where she had been left alone what seemed like hours ago. She was trying to think about what she could do to help Ron. She knew she didn't have much time but the added pressure wasn't helping her think any quicker.

Snape hadn't given her an answer as to whether or not he would go to see Ron, to check he was okay. Part of her knew he was probably the one who would have to question Ron, she hated to think about what he could do to make Ron talk, what he was capable. The thought of Ron being hurt was too much to bear and she ran over to Snape desk and tried opening up the drawers.

She was sure there must have been something in it that she could use to get out of the room and get to Ron and help him…not that she knew how she was going to help him yet. She would work that out on the way to him.

Upon realising his drawers were all locked she grabbed a heavy metal letter open and used it to force open the first of the drawers, it worked but she found nothing. She searched the next drawer down and still found nothing. It was in the third drawer that she found something, an old confiscated wand. Hermione knew she would have to be careful using it but she knew she would be able to use it, _she had no choice._

**~0~0~**

Hermione had used the wand to get out of Snape's quarters and travel, unnoticed down to the dungeons where Ron was being kept. She used the old wand she had found to hit the guard with a _Petrificus Totalus_ jinx. She watched as he fell to the floor, still as a statue. She ran past him, smiling to herself. She ran along the short narrow corridor, glancing in through the small barred windows on the doors. _Only when she saw Ron inside one of the small dungeon cells did she stop_.

"Alohomora!" she said pointing the wand at the huge lock on the door.

The moment it was magically unlocked she pushed the door open and ran inside. She ran over to Ron and fell to her knees beside him where he sat on the floor in the corner, slumped up against the wall.

She was shocked by the state of him, his face was black and blue with bruises, his eyes were black and swollen, his lip and nose were bleeding and he had deep cuts all over his face and hands. "Ron," she began.

"Sod off, whoever you are, I'm not telling you a thing!" Ron muttered angrily, keeping his eyes closed and his head resting on the hard, cold wall behind him.

"Ron, it's me!" Hermione told him, keeping her voice in a whisper.

"Games…" Ron muttered, still yet to open his swollen eyes and look at her.

"Ronald, look at me!" she told him sternly.

Her familiar tone was enough to make him open his heavy eyes and turn to face her. His face was a mixture of emotions. "Polyjuice…?"

"No. I swear it's me, Ron. Ask me anything?"

"What's special about my mother's clock?" Ron asked.

Hermione smiled and replied, "It tells her where you all are. It has all your faces on it. Yours, and Ginny's, Bill's, Charlie's, Percy's, George's and…."

"Fred's…" Ron finished for her, "His face is still on it, Mum couldn't bring herself to take it off."

Hermione had to swallow back the lump that suddenly formed in her throat caused by thinking about Fred Weasley who had died in the battle of Hogwarts. Suddenly unable not too, Hermione gently wrapped her arms around Ron and held him. "You have no idea how much I've missed you." She told him.

"I hope it's as much as I've missed you." he replied as he held her back. His hold much weaker due to the torture he had suffered.

Hermione used the old wand to cast a _Muffliato_ charm around them, just in case anyone or anything was listening. "How did you get caught?" she asked as she pulled away from him and used her sleeve to clean up a particularly deep gash on his forehead.

"It was me or Harry, so I made him hide." Ron whispered.

"Ron, they want to know where he is." Hermione said.

"I know, but I won't tell them. I'll keep it a secret for as long as I can, give him a chance to move, run and hide from them."

"Where have you two been? What have you been doing?" Hermione asked.

"Gathering people, people willing to stand up and fight against Voldemort and Snape and the rest of their kind. We have hundreds Hermione, thousands maybe. Not just Witches and Wizards but trolls, giants, creatures…so many want to put an end to this shit we've all been stuck with."

"If there's anything I can do to help!"

"Students, I know only purebloods can attend Hogwarts now…"

"You have no idea what this place is like now…I guarantee you students will fights again so that we can get the old Hogwarts back."

"Is it true you were given to Snape….to be his…?" Ron asked.

"How did you know that?" she asked, feeling embarrassed.

"A House Elf who works here. They want to fight too, the ones that can."

"It's not what you think." Hermione told him.

"I swear I'll make him pay for whatever he's done to you, for what happened to you. You have to believe me Hermione that Harry and I tried to rescue you but there was no way to get into the Muggle wars prison."

"Ron, forget about it, all that matters now is that we get rid of Voldemort once and for all. First of all we need to get you out of here."

"Us, Hermione! I'm not leaving you again." Ron said firmly.

"Yes you are, becasue you have too. I can't leave here, but I can get you out."

"No, Hermione. I'm not leaving here without you. Harry and I promised we would find you and help you. I'm not breaking that promise."

"Ron, I can't leave. I belong to Snape now. I have to stay here."

"Hermione, please, I can't go from here knowing you're stuck here with that dungeon bat. Everyone knows why you were given to him…the thought of him…his hands on you…"

"Ronald, he hasn't touched me. He's been training me so I can fight better in the wars."

Ron didn't have chance to question this as they heard a noise followed by loud footsteps and raised voices that were getting closer and closer. Hermione wasted no time in turning to face Ron and before he had time to argue with her she cast an invisibility charm on him.

"You'll be able to get out and away from the castle now. You have to leave and find Harry and be prepared for another fight with Voldemort. Please don't argue with me anymore. For my sake as soon as that door opens I need you to run."

"Hermione?"

"Please, Ron…. Please don't argue with me. Just say hi to Harry for me when you see him."

Before either of them could say another word the door to Ron's cell opened up. Hermione stared at the Carrow twins who stood there, glaring at her.

Slowly the male walked into the cell, his sister following behind. Hermione didn't see it but she knew Ron had done as she had told him and left. _She suddenly felt very alone._ She was so busy looking over at the door that she never heard the _Expelliarmus _charm that took the wand from her hand, never saw Amycus Carrow hit her hard on the back of her head.

She fell to the floor, yelping in pain as she bashed her jaw on the hard stone floor. She felt stinging jinx after stinging jinx hit her body as the Carrow's took it in turns to throw everything they could at her. When she felt the Cruciatus curse hit her body she couldn't help but scream in agony. Eventually the pain got so bad she simply passed out from it.

**TBC**

**Thank so much for reading, please review and let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to everyone reading and to everyone reviewing. Hope you like this chapter. Sorry it's taken so long to update, I've moved house and haven't had proper internet access so haven't been able to update any of my stories until now. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 9**

Hermione couldn't stop writhing on the large bed she had woken to find herself lying on. She was in agony. The effects of the Cruciatus curse continued to ripple through her body sending burning pain to all her nerve endings. She cried out as the pain became stronger, before slowly dying down slightly.

She was wishing for the world to end, _right now,_ just to end her suffering. She truly had never felt pain like this, not even in all her battles in the Muggle wars suffering from the worst of the injuries she had incurred over her time there. She could barely lift her head up to look at the person sitting beside her bed, watching her every move. She knew it was Snape and she knew he was just waiting for the chance to question her about her having helped Ron escape.

She couldn't ignore the shrill yell of a familiar voice as she burst into the room. _It was professor McGonagall. _It was common knowledge among those who didn't work for the Dark Lord that the only reason she, and a few other professors, had stayed on at Hogwarts was to keep an eye on the students attending and protect them however they could.

Snape turned to watch McGonagall storm over to him. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared down at Hermione who continued to writhe in pain. "What in Merlin's name have you done to her, Severus?" she spat.

"Pipe down, Witch! I have played no part in this." Snape replied, instantly bored by the older witch's accusations.

"Oh you are playing a very big part in this! It is common knowledge after all why Miss Granger was given to you. The fact that you accepted…well it's despicable." she barked at him.

"I have not touched her!" Snape protested angrily as he stood.

"Coward!" she bellowed at him, "Don't you try to lie to me. I knew you were among the lowest of life forms the day you murdered Albus, I never thought it possible for you to sink any lower until you brought her back here, like some huntsman with his kill." McGonagall growled at him, her voice strained with emotion.

"You may be right in the fact that I murdered Albus but you are very wrong about my reasons for bringing her back here."

"Whatever your reasons I beg you to let me help her now."

"I have already given her as much pain relief as she can possibly have for now. If she were to have more she would without a doubt die as a consquence."

"Students who I have seen put under the Cruciatus curse do not usually show this level of pain still after treatment?" McGonagall questioned as she moved to sit down beside Hermione, barely actually touching her she brushed a stray lock of Hermione's hair out of her face.

"True, but most students are only hit once or twice with the curse…"

McGonagall looked up at Snape with a look of knowing horror. "How many times?" she asked, not sure she actually wanted to hear the answer.

Snape hesitated before he replied, "The Carrow's informed me that they lost count sometime after the tenth time."

McGonagall groaned in pure disgust, she truly despised the Carrow twins. "She's lucky to be alive."

"I can assure you she will be thinking anything but."

"Oh and just what makes you so sure?"

"I know what it feels like to suffer the curse more times than you yourself can count." Snape said.

McGonagall glanced up at Snape and couldn't help but offer him a slight look of sympathy but the look soon faded and she turned back to Hermione who reached out and weakly took hold of her hand. McGonagall sighed before she turned to face Snape again. "There must be something more you can do for her." McGonagall cried.

"All I can do is try to keep her comfortable until the pain ends" he said feeling more than guilty about such a thing.

"Then I shall leave you too it." McGonagall said, gently brushing her hand over Hermione's face again.

McGonagall got up and slowly headed out of Snape's bedroom and towards the doorway of his quarters. As they got to the door McGonagall stopped dead and turned to face Snape, "If there is still an ounce of decency left in you Severus I beg you to stop all this. Be the person I thought you were once, protect the students who need you and stop the likes of the Carrow's from hurting them."

Snape just looked at her in silence, there was nothing he could say to her to make it right. McGonagall looked back at him and he couldn't help but notice how much thinner she looked, how much paler she had gone, how many more wrinkles had now formed on her face. She was literally giving her life into helping protect the students she could, the signs were telling on her, she looked old, frail.

"Goodnight, Minerva." he said after a moment longer of hesitation.

McGonagall could only nod her head at him before she rushed out of his door, he watched her transform into a tabby who easily ran along the corridors in the shadows, making a quick and safe way back to her quarters, the only place in the castle where she was truly safe.

**~0~0~**

Snape wandered back into his room. He saw that Hermione had stopped writhing so much, but he could see the pain etched on her face still. She glanced up at him and weakly asked, "Pro…professor Mc….McGonagall?"

"She's gone back to her quarters." he told her.

Before Hermione had chance to answer she whimpered as pain shot through all her muscles. She couldn't help but cry out in agony. It was a desperate sound that made Snape sit down on the bed beside her.

He was shocked when she reached out and grabbed hold of his hand and held it tight. "I feel like every muscle in my body is ripping apart!" she cried out in agony.

Snape wasted no time as he peeled her hand from off of his and then stood up from the bed. He reached down and gently scooped Hermione up into his arms. He could feel her body shivering against his, "I'm cold!" she told him.

"A common after effect for some, after the spasms have stopped." he informed her.

"Help me, please, I can't take this." she cried out, not caring how pathetic her cries sounded.

Snape quickly but carefully carried her across his bedroom and through a door that led into his own private bathroom. Once inside he easily balanced Hermione in one arm then whipped out his wand and pointed it at the bathtub which immediately began to fill, another flick of his wand and a small mirror fronted cabinet opened and bottles of different kinds of bubble bath floated over to the bath tub, dispersing some coloured liquids before neatly returning to the cupboard.

Knowing what it felt like to suffer the Cruciatus curse and having learned the best ways to ease the pains that followed it, Snape knew that at this stage the best way to ease Hermione's pain was a hot bath filled with bath lotions that would ease muscle pain, relax the body and sooth the mind.

He knew there was no way he could leave Hermione to bathe alone, it was too risky. She was falling in and out of consciousness because of the pain. The best way to help her would be to hold her in the water and let it and the lotions do their work. He pointed his wand at himself and the bulkiest of his clothing disappeared, leaving him in just a white button up shirt and his black trousers.

He pointed his wand at Hermione and her shoes, trousers and thick jumper disappeared leaving her in just a spaghetti strap shirt and her underwear. He pointed his wand at the bath tub once more and the taps turned off. His bath was just like the one in Hermione's so he carefully stepped down into it, holding Hermione securely in his arms. The hot water that enveloped his and Hermione's body felt instantly healing to both of them.

He moved to the corner and sat down on a sunken ledge. He easily rested Hermione across his lap. The water came just above her shoulders and below Snape's, so Hermione lay with her head resting against his chest.

After just a minute he felt her stop shaking, felt her body relax. It had been _so_ tense just moments ago he feared it would snap with one touch. Her breathing became less laboured and heard her gently sigh with what he was sure was relief.

"This helps." she muttered.

"I know." he replied.

"Thank you, Professor Snape." she said as she nuzzled her face into his chest once more and let her eyes drift shut.

"I am not your Professor anymore, Miss Gra… Hermione, you may call me Severus."

Hermione wanted to look up at him, to be sure he had actually just said this, and that she hadn't just dreamt it, but she was far too relaxed, far too comfortable embraced in his arms, leaning against his chest. It was an odd feeling and had she been in more her own state of mind she was sure she would have pulled away from him, but right now that was the last thing she wanted to do, so she snuggled in more to him and said, "Thank you, Severus."

With her pain finally easing she began to drift asleep in his arms as the hot water and healing lotions continued to soothe her body.

"You're entirely welcome, Hermione." Snape whispered back to her.

**TBC**

**Thanks so much for reading, hope you liked. Please review and let me know what you think. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to those of you reading and to those who are reviewing. Sorry it's taken so long to update. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 10**

Hermione opened her eyes expecting to feel pain but she felt none. She let her tired eyes drift shut and snuggled back against the warmth she was lying on. She was comfortable, and felt like she could stay here where she had been sleeping for the rest of her life. She felt safe, something she rarely felt anymore.

She placed her hand onto the pillow her head rested on. It shocked her a little that it was so warm but it didn't shock her enough to make her open her tired eyes. She softly brushed her fingers over the soft warm material of her pillow…_it was only when her pillow moaned that her eyes shot open._ She sat up and quickly realised it wasn't a pillow she had been sleeping on but rather Severus Snape.

She pushed herself away from him, waking him up. He glanced up at her and she glanced down and saw that she had no trousers on and that he himself was half dressed - _compared to how he usually dressed._

Snape was still half asleep so could do nothing to dodge her fist that connected hard with his nose. He rolled onto his side, holding his nose and groaning in discomfort, he was sure the younger witch had broken his nose. He felt the bed shift as Hermione jumped up and off it.

"What the hell am I in your bed for?!" she yelled at him having realised she was in fact not in her in her own room.

Snape ignored her as he rolled off the bed, landing on his feet and using one arm to straighten himself up, his other hand remained over his bloody nose.

Hermione reached out and grabbed a blanket off the bed and wrapped it around herself. "Why am I half dressed?!" she shrieked.

"Why are _you_ half dressed?!" he yelled back at her feeling practically naked in front of her without his usual layers.

"I demand you tell me what happened!" she shrieked.

"If you stop shouting perhaps I could explain." he said as he grabbed his wand off the bedside table and pointed it at his nose. A quick and simple charm had his broken nose fixed and the blood from his face and shirt gone.

"What did you do to me?" Hermione asked him having picked up a lamp from off the bedside table on the side of the bed which she stood.

"I had to do something to stop the pain you were in last night. Experience told me that a hot bath was the best option after you had been given the maximum amount of pain medication possible." Snape began to explain.

"Oh my God!" Hermione cried as she dropped the lamp onto the bed, "Please tell me that I was fully…clothed during this bath?" she said, her cheeks blushing bright red.

"Practically, as was I." he told her.

"You bathed with me?" Hermione cried, wishing the ground would swallow her up.

"I wasn't about to leave you to bathe alone in your semi-conscious state!" he growled at her as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. His charm may have fixed it but it had done nothing for the throbbing headache he had developed.

Hermione suddenly felt less embarrassed and slightly more grateful, she was about to show her gratitude when she thought back to what had happened. She didn't remember it perfectly but she remembered having gone to see Ron, having helped him escape, having had the Carrow twins torture her. "Ron…" she muttered.

"He escaped, thanks be to you!" Snape growled.

"Good!" she spat.

"He will be more wanted than ever now. You have probably placed him in more danger than he was in before."

"So long as he's not here he'll be fine." Hermione said knowingly.

Snape watched as she suddenly winced as pain shot through her body. Although only slight she was still feeling some after effects from the Cruciatus curse.

"You need another dose of pain medication, but not until you've eaten something." Snape told her firmly.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Somewhat reluctantly, Hermione had eaten breakfast, only when she had begun eating did she realise just how hungry she was. She easily devoured three slices of toast smeared with butter and honey. She also gobbled down two hot croissants smothered in jam and was eating an apple when Snape walked over to her carrying a small vial.

"Drink!" he told her as he thrust it into her hand.

Despite offering her such a fantastic breakfast she knew he was angry with her still and she understood why. She put her apple down and gratefully consumed the pain medication. She washed the bitter taste away with a mouthful of fresh orange juice.

As she placed her glass down she caught sight of Snape standing in front of the fire place. "You haven't eaten a thing." she said, "You really should eat something." she told him.

She almost jumped out of her chair when the food disappeared from the table without a sound. "Guess breakfast is over." she muttered.

She didn't expect Snape to Disapparate from where he stood by the fire and Apparate right beside her. He grabbed the arms of her chair and spun it round to face him, causing it to make a loud scraping noise against the wooden floor. He leaned so far forward into her that his face was mere inches away from hers.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? Do you have any comprehension of how pissed the Dark Lord is with you? I have no idea if there will be anything I can do to save you because of what you've done!"

"What the hell do you care anyway!" she yelled back at him as she tried to push his hands off the arm of the chair he currently had her pinned to.

"Damn-it Hermione, I don't want to see you killed!" he bellowed at her as he grabbed hold of her wrists.

"And why's that?!" she spat at him.

"Because I care for you!" his words shocked himself as much as they clearly shocked her.

She didn't even notice for a second as he suddenly Disapparated, leaving her alone in the room to register what he had just said.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Snape was pacing around his office. He kept hearing his words replaying over and over in his head. He wanted to pretend that he hadn't said them but as they clearly replayed in his head he knew he had in fact said them loud and clear.

He barely had another moment to think about his words as a familiar burning pain spread over his forearm. It was the Dark Lord calling him and despite knowing it wasn't going to end well he had no choice but to answer the call.

He walked over to the window and looked out at the gloomy weather, then with a very loud and angry crack he Disapparated from Hogwarts.

**~0~0~ **

Snape Apparated in the middle of the Muggle battle arena. He hated the place. He had seen far too many innocent Muggle's lose their life here. The first time he had seen Hermione here his heart had skipped a beat, the way it did when he saw any of his ex-students, but there had also been something different about it. He had felt so guilty seeing her there and so had vowed to get her out some way, somehow.

"_Severus."_ He heard from behind him.

He instantly recognised the Dark Lords voice and turned to face him, "My Lord…" he began, but a flick of Voldemort's wand had him soaring through the air before he landed hard on his back. The crunch of bones was sickening, not to mention painful.

Snape quickly pushed himself up onto his knees, he remained on them, his head bowed in respect to Voldemort who made his way over to him, his snake beside him. Snape barely moved his head but his eyes followed the Snake as she circled him.

"The Carrow twins have informed me that it was your Mudblood who helped the blood traitor Weasley escape!" he hissed angrily.

"I assure you she will be punished if it is true." Snape said.

"Of course it's true!" Voldemort hissed before setting Snape under the Cruciatus curse.

The pain was something he was used to but it was still agony. The moment the pain was gone he had to put out a hand on the ground to stop himself falling flat on his face. Once he had steadied himself he looked up at Voldemort.

"You will bring her here to me. I will battle her myself, in front of everyone. I shall be the one to kill her, slowly and painfully."

"It was I who told her to help him escape!" Snape blurted out. He had said it before his head had finished deciding why he would say it.

"You told her to let him escape?" Voldemort said, the shock evident in his voice.

"I knew it would take him a while to get back to Potter, which is where he would without any doubt go. I knew if we followed him it would help lead us straight to Potter. Had the Carrow's spent less time torturing Hermione and actually gone after Weasley then perhaps right now Potter would be here with us and not still in hiding."

Snape looked up at Voldemort, praying this would work. If his lies didn't then both he and Hermione were surely dead. Voldemort stared at him, thinking it over. Finally he spoke up, "Then it is the Carrow's who are to blame. I will see them at once!"

As Voldemort walked away from him Snape pushed himself up onto his feet. The pain of the Cruciatus curse still lingered throughout his body but he ignored that as he prayed once more this would all turn out well.

"You may go now, Severus."

Snape bowed his head and prepared to Disapparate but he was stopped as Voldemort turned to face him again.

"You will punish the Mudblood, Severus. This I will be checking up on."

_Severus didn't doubt this for a second, but he had no idea what he could do about it._

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it. Please review and let me know what you think. **


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm really sorry it's taken so long to update. Please feel free to hassle me when I'm taking too long to update.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

**Chapter 11**

Hermione was sat reading when Snape practically fell out of the fire place having used the Floo network to return to Hogwarts. She quickly dove off the couch in time to reach out and catch him. She didn't have the strength to carry him to his room and he could barely walk so she lowered him down onto the nearest couch, falling onto it with him.

"What happened?" she asked frantically.

"What do you think?" Snape replied, not meaning to sound as harsh as he did but his body was riddled with pain.

"What can I do?" she asked, wanting to help him anyway she could just like he had helped her before.

"Get me a drink, Firewhiskey…." he said through gritted teeth.

Hermione set straight to the task, doing just as he had asked and just moments later she carried a large glass of Firewhiskey over to him. Snape took the glass from her and quickly downed the entire contents of the glass. He then held the empty glass out to her and barked at her to bring him another.

Hermione did so but promised herself she wouldn't get him anymore. She was sure drinking himself out of pain wasn't the best option. "Is there a spell or something more I can do to help you?"

"No." Snape said as he pushed himself off the couch and over to the sideboard, ready to pour himself yet another drink.

"Don't you think you've had enough?" she said to him.

"No." he replied coldly.

"Well I do!" she replied in an equally cold tone.

She reached out and grabbed both the tumbler and the crystal decanter from him. She fought to rip them from his grasp.

"Let it go, Granger!" he growled at her.

"You've had enough, you need pain medication not alcohol!"

"Let it go!" Snape roared at her.

Suddenly a wave of pain shot through Snape's body and his grip loosened on the tumbler and the decanter, Hermione's awkward grip on them meant they ended up spilling from her hands. They landed of the floor with a loud smash.

"You stupid witch!" Snape barked at her.

"I'm not the one aiming to drink myself into a coma."

"I wasn't planning on doing that."

Hermione chose to ignore him as she bent down and began picking up the bigger shards of glass.

"Leave it!" Snape told her.

"Sod off!" she snapped at him, but just a second later she wished she'd listened to him. "Shit!" she cursed as a thick shard punctured her middle finger.

Snape rolled his eyes and grabbed hold of her arm. He pulled her up to her feet and then grabbed her arm and pulled it towards him, ready to heal the deep gash on her finger. However, Hermione quickly snatched her arm away from it.

"I don't need your help!" she spat at him.

"Fine, do it yourself!" Snape spat at her, shoving his wand into her hand. "Marlin, knows you'll need a wand when the Dark Lord comes after us."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked him as he strode away from her.

He quickly spun round to face her as he yelled, "For what you did I am supposed to punish you, severely, and the Dark Lord _will_ be checking to see that I have done so!"

"And if you won't?" Hermione asked, knowing it wasn't that he couldn't harm her like he had been ordered but rather that he didn't want too.

"Then will we both end up dead, probably tortured first."

Hermione could say nothing, she could only glance down at the wand in her hand, and then suddenly having an idea she glanced up at Snape who now had his back to her. She held up the wand and silently cast the Imperius curse upon him. She knew any other time there was no way he would be affected by this curse, she knew his will power would be enough to render the curse useless against him, but the fact that his body and mind were both weakened from the Cruciatus curse meant that the curse was successful.

Snape turned to face her with a vacant look in his eyes. She knew what she was about to do wouldn't be easy for both of them but she knew that it just had to be done. She pointed the wand at him and closed her eyes and then without uttering a word gave him his commands.

Just seconds later she felt his fist slam into cheek and could do nothing to stop herself from spinning on the spot before falling to the floor on her hands and knees. She cried out in agony as his foot connected with her ribs, the crunch she heard was deafening and equally sickening.

She yelped in pain as he grabbed her hair and pulled her up onto her knees, just a moment later the back of his hand swiped across her face. She felt her lip bust open, she could taste the metallic taste of her own blood as it filled her mouth.

She remained on her knees when Snape let go of her hair, he stepped in front of her and then putting all his weight behind it slammed his foot into chest. Hermione fell backwards, wanting to scream in pain but Snape had knocked the wind out of her and left her feeling like she was going to suffocate.

She landed hard on her back and unable to take in a much needed breath she rolled onto her side and reached out to grab Snape's wand, which had fallen from her hand the first time Snape had hit her. She had almost put her hand on it when Snape stepped in her way and kicked her hard in the stomach.

She wanted to curl up and try to hide from the pain but Snape stepped around her and kicked her hard in the stomach again, luckily for Hermione in doing so he kicked her closer to the wand. She was able to grab hold of it and quickly flipped over and pointed the wand at Snape. She was successfully able to end the Imperius curse but not in time to stop Snape from kicking her hard in the shoulder. She couldn't help but scream in agony as she heard a pop and she just knew it was dislocated.

It took Snape a second to come round from the curse and just another second to see Hermione lying on the floor writing in pain to know what she had done to him and what he had done to her. "What the hell did you do?" he growled at her as he knelt beside her and took his wand from her.

"What we both know you wouldn't have done on your own."

"Look at your face!" he said, sounding horrified, as he gently cupped her face. "I need to get you on the couch so I can heal you."

"No!" Hermione cried.

"You're bleeding and I think your shoulder is dislocated!"

"And this is exactly how I need to look if you-know-who comes checking."

Snape hesitated for a moment before he scooped her up and carried her over to the couch. He knew there was nothing he could do to help her now, she was right it was exactly how she had to look if Voldemort came looking, or if he sent anyone looking for him.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Hermione had fallen into a pain induced sleep on the couch. It was why she hadn't heard the Floo network activated but she almost screamed in pain when something was prodded into her ribs. The pain was so bad she wanted to throw up but she held it back when she saw who was standing in front of her, his cane in his hand…_Lucius Malfoy._

"You look terrible dear." Bellatrix said as she stepped beside Lucius. Hermione hadn't even noticed she was there but she did notice the look of happiness on her face, happiness she knew was caused by seeing the pain she was clearly in.

Hermione knew she had to act worse than she felt, something she knew would be hard because she was in a world of pain. She did notice that although her arm and shoulder was aching like hell it was no longer dislocated and she just knew Snape had fixed it somehow. Forgetting that, she simply let her eyes drift shut, something she regretted when Lucius prodded her in the ribs again.

"The Dark Lord will be pleased that you actually followed through, Severus." Lucius hissed.

"If you have seen all you need to then do hurry up and leave, I have a school to run after all and I find it to be a twenty four hour job."

"I think perhaps we should stick around." Bellatrix said as she slumped down onto the couch opposite the one Hermione was sitting on. "We could watch you punish her some more."

"I fear if I were to punish her anymore she would be dead."

"Worse things have happened." Bellatrix said coldly.

"The Dark Lord said she was to be punished, not killed." Snape pointed out.

"Mistakes will happen."

"Come, come, Bellatrix, Severus is provided with many benefits by keeping the mudblood around." Lucius said with a sly smile. "Time to go!" he said, "The Dark Lord will be most pleased to hear that you followed through with his orders."

Snape watched as Lucius stepped over to the fire place and took a handful of Floo powder, a moment later he was gone. Snape turned to look at Bellatrix with a look that said _'shouldn't you be following him?'_

Bellatrix pushed herself up off the couch and walked over to the fireplace. She grabbed a handful of Floo powder and turned to glare at Snape and then Hermione. "I know you two are up to something. I don't trust either of you for a moment and as soon as I find out what you're up to I will kill you both!" she said with a snarl, a moment later she too was gone.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading, please leave a review, I would truly appreciate hearing what you think of the story. Constructive criticism is always welcome. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks to everyone reading and reviewing. This is a very short chapter but the next will be longer.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**Chapter 12**

_**Two weeks later**_

Hermione had quickly come to learn that having Snape beat her was not enough punishment in the Dark Lord's eyes. Hermione had fought practically every day in the Muggle wars since Bellatrix and Lucius had come to check up on her. Both she and Snape knew it was most likely from Bellatrix complaining to Voldemort that Snape's punishment had not been severe enough.

Hermione knew Bellatrix wanted to see her dead, the dark witch had said as much herself. At every battle Hermione could see the frizzy haired witch glaring down at her waiting for her to lose, waiting for her to be ripped apart by the dragons, the trolls and the other wild magical creatures she had to fight. Hermione had seen the witch laughing when she had been struck by jinxes from her fellow opponents.

She often wondered when she would be forced to fight Bellatrix. She knew the time she did it would be her last in the arena. She also knew the time was coming soon.

She sat alone in the all too familiar cell as she waited to go into the arena. It was as cold and damp as ever. Even as she waited she was too tired to even consider the possible opponents she would be up against today. A small part of her wished it would be something that would just kill her already, do it quickly and get it over with because she was growing too tired to keep fighting, too tired to want to live and she didn't want Bellatrix having the satisfaction of being the one to kill her.

After a few more minutes of waiting in her cell the door in the wall finally formed and a tall and ugly Death Eater stood opposite Hermione. "Show time!" he said with a smirk which only added to his hideous features.

Hermione pushed herself up and walked over to him, he stepped aside so she could pass him and she walked just slightly ahead of him to the tunnel that would lead her out into the arena.

It had been dark in her cell so the bright sunlight as she stepped into the arena made her snap her eyes shut and she just opened them slightly, slowly, letting them adjust to the light. When she was finally able to keep them open she scanned the arena. It was fairly basic; the ground beneath her was grass, yellowing under the baking sun, there were bushes all around her, but only some that would make an adequate hideaway.

She spun round on her heels as the crowd suddenly began to cheer, she wondered what wild magical creature she would be find standing behind her, what evil looking Death Eater had been selected to try and kill her this time. It's why she was in total shock when she turned around to see Neville Longbottom standing there, looking up at the crowd with terror splashed across his face.

"Neville!" Hermione cried, wondering how he could have been caught, how he could have come to be here, he was a pure blood after all.

She ran towards him, ready to ask him a million questions, she was even filled with new hope, hoping that she and Neville could somehow find their way out of the arena and she hoped he could lead her back to Harry, Ron and the others.

She was running too fast to stop herself as she watched Neville raise his wand and throw a jinx at her.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Harry was standing there, looking up at the arena. It was huge and very intimidating, but he knew that was the point. He took a deep breath and thought about what he was about to do, thought about the plan they had gone over and over again.

"Ready?" he asked his small companion. They simply nodded their response.

He kept tight hold of his broom and with his cloak of invisibility over them and the broom they took to the sky, ready to go into the arena and save Hermione.

**~0~0~0~0~**

Hermione hit the ground hard, sending a cloud of dust billowing around her. The pain in her head was horrendous but she quickly pushed herself up to her feet and tried to forget about it and simply focus. She quickly searched the ground below her, desperately trying to find her wand which and fallen from her hand at some point.

She fell onto her knees and cried out in pain as a familiar curse hit her in the back. She knew this couldn't be Neville, she knew he would never use the Cruciatus curse on her. She could only presume his captors had used the Imperius curse on him. Still she had to try to make him see sense.

"Neville, please…. You know it's me, Hermione. We're friends!" she tried as the curse ended.

"What's your point?" he asked before he hit her with another Cruciatus curse.

Hermione had to wait for the pain of the curse to end before she could reply, "So you wouldn't be doing this if you were yourself. Neville, whatever curse they've put you under you have to fight it. Remember the good and kind person that you are." Hermione pleaded.

Despite trying to reason with him she was trying to reach out and grab her wand which was just beside her, just out of her reach. She yelped in pain as Neville slammed his foot down on her wrist. The pain it left in her whole arm was sickening and she barely noticed when he moved his foot away and took his stance.

Hermione could only lie there and wait for the curse she hoped that would end all her pain and suffering. If this world could corrupt someone as pure as Neville then she didn't want to fight to be a part of it anymore.

She watched him through tear filled eyes as he raised his wand and got ready to throw his curse. She never saw it as blackness began to take over her, but before she fell into it she felt herself being pulled through a rubber tube. It was a familiar feeling, the feeling of Disapparation.

**TBC**

**Thanks for reading, I'm sure there are questions about this chapter but all will be answered soon. **

**Please review. **


End file.
